If you slide out of a car seat on a cold, dry day, you can get an electric shock when you touch the car body. If you hold on to the body of the car as you slide out, this does not happen. Why is this so?

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Solution

If we slide out of a car seat on a cold, dry day, we can get an electric shock when we touch the car body. This happens because the static charges built-up on our body discharges to the metallic body of the car.
If we hold on to the body of the car as we slide out, this does not happen. This can be explained thus: The body of the car is made of a metal, which is a good conductor of electricity, and so the excess charge in our body, developed from friction with the seat, moves through the body of the car. Therefore, we do not get an electric shock.

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