Two connected questions about electricity and noise (unwanted sound) :
1) Sometimes you get a very unpleasant, continuous sound/noise when you operate a machine which normally is mostly silent. Eg speakers connected to your computer. Is it correct to generally refer to this as an electrostatic phenomenon? (I understand it has to do with grounding -??? not sure if the correct term in english - of wires).
2) I am also thinking of a similar, but a lot more pronounced, noise which seems to be the result of nearing a wire to a socket in a similar set-up (eg computer socket and some wire for the speaker). Is this due to mistaking the polarity of the edge of the wire, and in effect trying to insert the edge with the wrong polarity? (electrical charge?). If so, is the phenomenon again tied to grounding the system or is this something entirely different?
If possible I'd like to avoid technical terms (I read about Ω difference and "ground loop", but I just need general terms as in the ones I mentioned above ).
I just need this for a passing simile in a short story. A terrible sound is likened to that. (story isn't in english, so what I want is just to verify the generals for the simile)...