Scientists around the world are struggling with the problem of prolonging the life of energy sources. Everyone knows that two differently charged objects are attracted, but usually the force of this attraction is small and unreliable. Scientists experiment and found out: special polymer plates, charged in a certain way, are attracted to each other with a force of several pounds! Despite the fact that they are charged with a charge of only one microcoulomb.
Let us explain: the piezoelectric effect is the property of crystals of certain substances during compression to change the crystal lattice and, as a result, to produce an electric charge of very high voltage. For the first time this property was discovered in quartz crystals in 1880 by the French physicists Jacques and Paul Curie. Today, more than one and a half thousand substances with such properties are known, of which Rochelle salt and barium titanate are widely used. The most common device today that uses the piezoelectric effect is a convenient lighter.