While all electrical theory is just that, a theory.. your theory is quite misinformed in many areas and does not follow current knowledge or teachings. I am a licensed electrician with over 9 years of experience, and 4 years of extensive schooling. I have been building and playing with electronic analog and digital circuits for over 20 years.
Static electricity is a current from a finger to charges located beneath the feet. That is the current path. Voltage only exists if anything tries to stop that current flow.
Kinda, but not really. Static charge is built up to an object, an entire human being, or a whole computer, or an entire airplane, not "beneath the feet". Beneath the feet is not the current's discharge path, wherever contact was made between you and another object is the currents path. Current follows the path of least resistance, which is virtually never through the rubber soles of shoes.
A best test for any computer is to locate it on a glass table (because other tables are electrically conductive). Connect the chassis far end to a wire to the floor (and therefore to charges beneath shoes). Then static discharge to the chassis's near end. That charge should connect to feet on a path that does not pass through any electronics. Test is about the path that a static current flows.
With enough voltage, even glass is conductive - usually because of impurities or additives used during the manufacturing of the glass. If you want to be technical, a ceramic table or "science room" black table is better.
Electricity wants to go to earth ground all the time. Period. Not through your feet. The charge is not "connecting to your feet". Again, path of least resistance, so the charge should pass any electronics, yes, but is not traveling to your feet after it goes to your homes floor.
If, for example, a static current enters one end of a PC motherboards's ground plane (via one standoff). And exits on the other end of that same ground plane, then current in that copper plane creates major voltages between semiconductor chips. The computer remains powered but software crashes.
Wrong. The path the current would take would be THE GROUND PLANE, not the electronics indirectly connected to it. Why would the current jump through the very hard to pass electrolytic capacitor, resistors, diodes and transistors... instead of the almost zero resistance ground plane? It wouldn't. So it doesn't create "major voltage" differences between chips, the chips sink the current in an additive fashion to the static discharge as such "static discharge voltage + electronics voltage = total sink". The computer remaining powered or not and the software crashing or not has virtually nothing to do with anything, electrically. Static discharges can be misinterpreted by semiconductors as a "signal" (Think square wave), which may produce stop errors or mathematical errors, out of limits, that lock the machine. Without proper grounding, ground loops can exist within a device that resonate for many milliseconds or even longer - creating multiple false signals.
Same applies to the mainframe. Any part of any mainframe can be static shocked without problem. In that case, a current was getting back to his feet via a path that went through electronics. Something is wrong inside the IBM machine.
So which is it? The "mainframe can be static shocked without problem" or "Something is wrong inside the IBM machine"?
In another event, operators would touch a big plastic shutdown switch. And crash a computer. Well, the switch was rated for 20,000 volts. More than enough to avert problems. But the switch was mounted on a plate that was epoxy painted on the inside. A best path back to shoes was through that big plastic mushroom switch and through the attached computer. Solution was internal lock washers to cut into the epoxy paint. So that a static discharge to the switch went into the chassis ground; not into the computer's ground.
A switches voltage rating is for it's internal contacts and dissipation current/time characteristics.. not static discharge capabilities or shortfalls.
Again, with the feet. Why is it that a person that has built up a static charge can still shock a computer even while standing on a ESD rubber mat? Because the persons potential is different than that of the computer. The person is acting as a capacitor, or battery, storing energy until able to be released. It is not discharging through feet, it is discharging through the computer and off to ground.
If the switch were improperly grounded then chances are that the discharges were going to the switches input on the motherboard.. I doubt the switch was "switching" ground.
That is another important concept. Chassis ground and motherboard ground are electrically different. Best way to avert static induced crashes is to have both grounds only connect at one point. Then the current has no incoming and another outgoing path via a motherboard ground.
Motherboard ground and chassis ground are both connected to the same grounding conductor, the green wire, or earth ground of your electrical outlet. That does not require that the motherboard be isolated from the chassis, in fact, if you think so then you must know something that every computer manufacturer doesn't. Wrong concept there bud.
Static discharges can find defective wiring inside a computer box. Computers must even be painted inside the plastic with an electrically conductive paint so that plastic also does not connect a static discharge into electronics. Yes, many items considered insulators (ie plastics) are actually electrical conductors.
Survey says... WRONG.
It's not that the plastic is a conductor, it is that it IS NOT A CONDUCTOR - that is why a static charge builds up. It is a dielectric as you could find inside a capacitor. Electrical charges build up on the surface of such items. You probably did the "balloon trick" with someones hair before.. the balloon isn't conducting electricity.. it's positively charging the persons hair, and negatively charging the balloon... creating a "difference in potential".
Use static to first identify and later fix a defective computer box. Next solve the other problem. Static electric exists due to defective room air. Humidity must be at least 20%; should be 40%. Then humans do not create static electricity.
I wouldn't suggest using static electricity as a testing tool on your static sensitive computer if it can be avoided. The air is not "defective" if there is low humidity. It simply means that electricity is not able to be dissipated through the water vapor that is in the air, or that is NOT in the air. Air is a great insulator, the water vapor within is not, which is why lighting usually happens during "rain events" lol. Humans create the same amount of static electricity whether the humidity is high or low, however, with an acceptable humidity the static is discharged at a constant and fairly quick rate.
Static electric is a good testing tool to find a building's defective safety ground. Once the safety ground is fixed, then he should review defective connections inside the computer. And then fix the reason for static to exist (humidity).
Again, not a good testing tool. Why not use a ground tester that you plug into the wall..
an actual tool that actual electricians use. The reason that static electricity is not a good "tester" is because you still shock "the building" whether it is grounded or not. So how would you narrow down what outlet has a good ground? Rub your feet 20 times on a carpet square and try and discern whether or not it hurt more or less? Ridiculous!
Where current is flowing inside the box is the problem and how a solution starts.
I don't even know what to say about this statement.
Please, fellow TN'ers, disregard this misinformation. Westom, please, at least Google things you are not qualified for. Here's something to get you started:
Wikipedia: Static Electricity
Wikipedia: Electrostatics and Coulomb's Law
lol.
