Van De Graff Expeirience

This lab was very intersting, it gave me a new view on what electricity is and how it can look. It showed me that in some cases static electricity can be seen and felt although it also showed me that even if you do not see or feel the electricity it can still be there. The mashine controled the static electricity so you could phisicaly see or feel it so that was very cool.
When the bubbles were blown at the mashine they went away from it like they were being pushed by some force. So the reason that the bubbles went away from the mashine like they did was probably the because both of the objects had a like charge on them, the mashine and bubbles. So the law says that like charges repel. When i say an object has a positive or negative charge what im saying is that objects are made up of atoms, those atoms can have positive or negative charges based off of how many protons , nuetrons and electrons they have. If there are more nuetrons and protons in an atom then that atom has a positive charge but if there is more electrons then the atom has a negative charge and if there is an equal number of positive and negative charges in an atom then it is nuetral and has no chrage. A charged atom is called an ion and that is the type of charge that deals with static electricity. So if two objects have like charges they repel kind of like when you have two batteries and you try to put them both together on one charge side and they wont go near eachother.
When we all formed a human chain touching the van de graff then turned it on everyone and the mashine were all the same object with a balance of positive and negative charges. So when that mashine was turned off and the chain was attached the entire object was not charged and when it was turned on it created an imbalance of charges the charge of the entire object was positive only so it didnt shock anyone.But it did shock people if someone not attached to the chain touched someone attached because it wants to even out the charges on both sides of the object so the transfer of electricity from someone not attached to someone attached causes a shock.
When the single napkin was set on top of the van de graff it stayed on but the flaps of it all blew up away from the mashine such as hair when an electrical current is being run through it.And then when three napkins were placed on top of the van de graff they all just stayed on because the three napkins became part of the object so the mashine and the napkins equaled out the charges and the transfer of electricity is what kept them together as opposed to when the single napkin blew up because it didnt have as many charges to equal out.
When strips of paper were taped to the sides of the van de graff the strips blew straight upward away from the mashine this is because of the law that says opposites attract and like charges repel. The paper had an equal number of positive and negative charges but once the mashine was turned on it the electrons from the mashine were being given off to the paper causing an imbalance of charges on the object so the positive repeles from the negative causing the paper to fly up.
When cheerios were placed on top of the machine they flew off up into the air in slow motion, this is because the mashine was loosing electrons and had an electron feild going from it so when the cheerios were set on top of it they had an equal number of po. and neg. charges so once the mashine was turned on it created an imbalance because it started loosing electrons and the cheerios were loosing electrons so then the mashine was positive and so were the cheerios and since like charges repel the cheerios flew off.
Questions:
Does a static shock come from the transfer of chrges between two objects to get like charges away from each other?
If there was electricity in a carpet can it be transfered somehow from that to something else?
What is the nuetrons role in an atom?