The Nature of Static Discharge Study

The Growth in Number of Ionized Nitrogen Molecules

Static discharge is an event that occurs when there is a sudden flow of electric charge between two objects with different electrical potentials. This phenomenon results in a brief burst of electromagnetic energy, which can be observed as a spark or heard as a crackling sound.

A physicist studying the nature of static discharge applied a voltage across a microscopic tube filled with nitrogen molecules. The process correctly describes the growth in the number of ionized nitrogen molecules over time as exponential, where each ionized molecule ionizes 3 other molecules every nanosecond.

The equation tN2 = 3⋅N states that the number of ionized molecules at time t is equal to 3 times the number of ionized molecules at the previous time step. This implies that the number of ionized molecules increases exponentially as each ionized molecule ionizes 3 other molecules every nanosecond.