Electrical charging of skis gliding on snow

Ski charging was measured using giant-slalom style skis as gliding capacitors. The voltage measured across the plates was proportional to the charge on the base. While resting on dry snow or suspended in the air, the voltage was slowly reduced by the data logger itself. On wet snow the decay was much faster. While stationary on powder snow the ski developed a slightly negative voltage, showed a small, transient positive peak when motion began, rapidly dropped to negative values, and then assumed a quasi-steady climb to positive voltages. A great deal of noise was superimposed on the general features of the signal when skiing on hard or bumpy surfaces. Thus, the accumulation of charge to high levels was only possible with long runs in deep powder. The rate of charging increased with speed but was not affected by use of one "antistatic" wax, and another such wax actually increased the measured voltage over that of an unwaxed base.