A simple plastic glove with a battery and coils of wire, with the twitch of a finger, the battery powers the coils creating a static charge around the glove, drawing dust to the glove and giving it a charge.
You then walk to the trash can and stick the glove inside.
With the twitch of another finger the current is reversed, reversing the glove's charge. This forces the dust away from the glove, due to identical charges. You then walk to the sink and wash off and residual sticky dust.-- DesertFox, Feb 24 2005 ESD http://www.dscc.dla...Packaging/ESDS.htmlCatastrophic and latent damages to electronic components [normzone, Feb 25 2005] Van der Waals forces http://www.chemguid...ms/bonding/vdw.html... are also how geckos can stick to almost any surface, from near frictionless to very rough. [Detly, Feb 25 2005] Probably not amazing to the homeless.-- mensmaximus, Feb 25 2005 Use caution when dusting electronic devices.-- normzone, Feb 25 2005 True. But it would only be a mild electrical charge.-- DesertFox, Feb 25 2005 A computer component can be damaged by the spark you generate by walking across a carpet. I might use this for dusting furniture.....if I ever dusted furniture.-- normzone, Feb 25 2005 The dust is attracted to the glove because of dipole forces induced in the dust particles - the (say) positive charge on the glove pushes the free positive charges in the dust particles away from the glove, and the now negative ends of the dust particles are attracted to the glove.
Unless both the dust and the glove are electrically conductive - and the dust certainly isn't - there will be no residual charge left on the dust. Reversing the charge on the glove would simply cause the dust to jump a little, and then resettle on the glove like before.
The technical term for the effect is 'Van Der Waals' attraction.
Also, coils of wire create a magnetic, not electric, field. I'm not sure how one easily creates an electric field which is not confined to a space between two charged objects (eg. plates or terminals).-- Detly, Feb 25 2005 You do know that there is a low tech static mitten duster on the market don't you [DesertFox]?-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 25 2005 random, halfbakery