How can I not get electrically shocked when handling my laptop in an airport?

While certainly not as good as Nate Eldrege's answer, I have a fairly simple solution for dealing with shocks.

Whenever I determine that something is a source of electrostatic discharge, I always put my hand into a fist and discharge with the bottom of my fist (ie: the opposite side that your thumb is on). Tuck your thumb into your closed fist under your fingers. This area certainly isn't as sensitive as your extended finger and will significantly lessen the pain/discomfort of discharge.

Again tucking your thumb in and making a tight fist, as I have found, lessens the severity of the shock.

Test it out on low-shock items (ie: metal doors, etc.) to get a feel for it.

I've had this issue at some security checkpoints and not others.

The difference, in my observation, is in the conveyor belts. I've never had it happen at a checkpoint where the rollers under the belt are metal. If the rollers under the belt are plastic (I think it's Delrin or nylon), it happens very frequently. The charge is being built up by the belt vs. the rollers vs. the plastic bin. Lots of slipping and sliding between all three. (Decades ago I had a toy VdG generator that worked pretty much the same way.)

The best way to discharge it is SLOWLY, through a resistor of about 1 megohm. (By "slowly" here, we're talking about a few milliseconds.)

When you are picking up your stuff, get the resistor out of where you keep it in your laptop bag. Hold one of the resistor's leads in your fingers and touch the other lead to the laptop's metal case. Done.

As others have noted, using a coin or paper clip will also save you from pain. The pain from a discharge of static like this is actually not from the electric current affecting your nerves directly, but from heating at the point where the arc hits your skin. By making the arc hit metal removed from your skin, you avoid this.

HOWEVER.

The reason I suggest the resistor is that even if you don't feel it, sudden static discharge is bad, bad, bad for microelectronics. Laptops are pretty well protected (any assembled product is these days... or should be), but a bit of extra caution can't hurt. By discharging through a 1 meg resistor you bleed the charge off slowly.

(The anti-static wrist straps that people working on electronics wear also use a 1 meg resistor.)

Discharging through a coin, which adds maybe half an ohm of resistance, won't make the discharge appreciably slower.

A 1 megohm resistor of 1/2 or 1/4 watt power rating or so will cost very little, depending on where you buy it and how many you buy at once. You can get a hundred of them on eBay for under 10 bucks. You can get them from any of the electronics distributors on the web (Mouser, Digikey, Newark, Allied, etc.) for 20 cents or less in quantity 1, but the shipping charge may be absurd. If you have a retail store nearby that sells electronics parts that's likely your best bet, even though they'll charge more for the part, you won't pay shipping. Radio Shack catalog number 2711356 will do (but you'll have to buy five of them, for $1.50 for the pack).

The power rating on the resistor won't matter - a 1/4 watt or 1/8 watt rating is fine, as is the typical 5% or 10% tolerance rating. Heck, speaking of tolerance, even the resistance value isn't terribly critical - anything from about 500K to 5 Megohm is good. You want an "axial lead" part, no other type.

Or, if you know an electronics geek, ask them - they likely have several (or many) and will just give you one.

Don't wear woolen socks.

Chances are - your socks are charging on the carpet (as you may be required to take off your shoes) and this causes the static build-up (and then discharge).

Try putting your shoes on first, and touch a metal object (like a desk) before you touch your laptop.

You can also try spraying on anti-static guard on your clothing - do not spray it on your laptop.

Hold the laptop with an item of clothing preferably natural not synthetic and touch the bare machine to any static metal item in the airport. This will discharge the static

I have another couple of suggestions to reduce the pain of the static discharge:

• Use the tip of your elbow (an almost totally insensitive patch of skin)
• Flick the item with your finger (the brain gets the static shock and the impact of the flick muddled up, and for some reason it hurts less. Try it!)