Where does the charge come from?

Question

One can seemingly perorm magic with a saliva moistened fingertip and a large cigarette ash. Slightly moisten your pinky finger with saliva and position the moist side of the finger an 1/ 8 of an inch above a cigarette ash. The ash will jump through the air to the fingertip!

This must be static electricity. How does the charge get established? From the burning of the tobacco? Or, is it from the electrolyte saliva?

Answer 1

I've never tried this experiment, nor tobacco.  Doesn't seem like a worthwhile reason to get addicted, and exposed to carcinogens I don't need (like the things I eat!).

It is a static electricity phenomenon.  You might find it works just as well without the saliva.  Burning creates ions which neutralize the electric charge of the burning object.  You, on the other hand, pick up static electric charges all over the place (walk across carpet, wear nylon clothes, etc.) which can be quite significant (1 to 2 cm arcs can be fairly common, and they represent 10 to 20 kV of static electrical potential!

So, you have a cigarette (or other) ash with essentially zero Volts potential, and you with thousands of Volts -- which means there will be attractive force.  (You probably thought the attractive force was from your good looks!)

(Don't slide in and out of your car while fueling, etc....)