The Role of Charges in Static Electricity

static electricity occurs because when certain materials are rubbed together you can move charged particles, generally electrons. So as an example if we rub a balloon with a piece of wool, both the wool and the balloon become charged. This is occurring because electrons are moving from the wool to the balloon or we can think of it as a rod as well. Once you take your hand and touch the rod however, your hand is a much better conductor than air so the electrons can much easily more easily move onto your hand. That's just charge moving from one place or another. It could be vice versa as well if you touch the wood which is positively charged then the electrons would do the reverse, they'd move