[Coda]

Originally Posted by Potironette

Ohh I didn't realize the cloth would regain electrons just by holding it with bare hands :/.

Yup. Always have to think about the whole system, because no experiment is ever TRULY an isolated, closed system.

Are electrical conductors and heat conductors completely unrelated?

Not COMPLETELY unrelated, but not completely related, either.

Heat is the kinetic energy of the particles within an object. Electrons are particles, so electron motion contributes to heat motion.

For metals, there's a relatively straightforward relationship between electrical and thermal conductivity. At a given temperature, the thermal conductivity is directly proportional to the electrical conductivity (that is, metals that are good electrical conductors are also good heat conductors), and raising the temperature causes electrical conductivity to go down and thermal conductivity to go up, and vice versa (that is, all metals transfer heat better when they're hot and transfer electricity better when they're cold). This is called the Wiedemann-Franz law, although I didn't actually KNOW that name until I went and looked it up just now.

For nonmetals, the electrons still contribute to heat transfer, but the molecules as a whole have a greater impact on how fast or slow the heat is transferred, so the specific relationship isn't so cleanly predictable. It's still possible to figure out the relationship in a given substance, but there's a lot more that you have to take into account.

So..a "ground" is anything that acts as a source of electrons..?

A ground is considered to have an infinite capacity to give and take electrons. Usually it's considered to be an electron sink instead of an electron source, but that's because usually when you're working with electricity you're pushing electrons instead of pulling them, since it's easier that way. But it works fine both ways.

It's called a ground because the Earth itself is the biggest, most convenient ground available, so when you're wiring a house for electricity, you shove a big metal spike into the ground (or you use a big buried metal pipe) and connect stuff to it so that it's easier for the current to go through that route instead of through your body to the ground THAT way if you touch a bare piece of electrified metal by accident.

Does a "potential" mean an object is more negative, or does it mean it's far from neutral?

Neither. It's the difference in relative charge. You could have a weakly negatively charged object and a strongly negatively charged object and there would still be an electric potential between them. You could have two objects with equally strong negative charge and despite the magnitude of the charge there would be no potential.