Static Electricity Experiment with Tape Pieces
What happened when the two pieces of tape were discharged between the fingers?
The two pieces were stuck together with their sticky sides facing each other and discharged between the fingers. When pulled apart, nothing happened, neither side of both pieces of tape were attracted or repelled to each other or the skin. Why did this happen?
Answer:
The behavior of the tape pieces is due to static electricity and the principle of induction. Discharging the tapes influences the distribution of charges, causing attraction, repulsion, or the lack thereof.
The phenomenon you're experiencing is related to static electricity and induction. When you first discharge the tapes between your fingers, you effectively neutralize or redistribute the charges on the sticky side of the tape. These two pieces of tape have equal charges. Like charges repel, so that's why their nonsticky sides repel each other but attract to your skin which has the opposite charge.
When the nonsticky side of one piece was stuck to the sticky side of the other after discharging, they began to attract each other because of potential differences in their electric charges. The attraction you observed after pulling them apart is due to the fact that the two tapes are now oppositely charged, owing to the phenomenon of induction and separation of charges.
Finally, when the sticky sides are stuck together and discharged, no charge differential is created between the two tapes. Hence, when they are pulled apart, neither repels nor attracts the other because both are at the same charge level, owing to which there is no net electric force acting between them.