system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:Before electricity was understood, how did people explain static electricity & static shocks?

I'm imagining someone in the medieval ages would think static electricity shocks would be akin to magic...
gpt
People on the Mediterranean have known about electric fish since before recorded history. The African electric catfish, for example, is found in Egypt and can deliver a mild electric shock. Although they didn't understand electricity, it was repeatable, so they were able to figure out that there were particular creatures that created this weird shocking, numb feeling. Around 2,600 years ago, the Ancient Greeks were experimenting with static electricity from amber and connected it to the feeling of being shocked by an electric fish. Whatever this thing was, it wasn't "magic", because people understood where to find this thing in nature (electric fish) and how to make it themselves (rub amber with a cloth). About 400 years ago, the phenomenon was given the name "electricity", from the Greek word for amber.

What ancient people defined as "magic" is different from our own understanding of the word. But with something like gravity or shadow or electricity, if people could predict what it does and how to make it do that thing, it wasn't magic, it was just a part of life.