I AM ECSTATIC
Rubbing a balloon on your hair or on your shirt or
sweater can produce static electricity. Let's
experiment with a balloon to see if you can pick up some
good information about static electricity.
Materials:
• Balloon
• Paper
• Aluminum foil
• Small piece of Styrofoam
• Child-safe scissors
Procedures:
1. Use your scissors to cut out 5-10 small squares of paper about 1 centimeter on each side. Lay them out near each other on a table.
2. You or your adult partner should blow up a balloon and tie it. Rub the balloon back and forth quickly on your hair, shirt, or sweater.
3. Bring the balloon close to the paper squares but do not touch them. What do you notice?
4. Cut out some small pieces of aluminum foil and Styrofoam. Lay the pieces out on a table5. Again, rub the balloon back and forth
quickly on your hair, shirt, or sweater. Bring the balloon close to the aluminum foil and Styrofoam pieces. What happens?
Think about this …
When you rub a balloon on your hair, shirt, or sweater, you can use the balloon to attract things toward it. You can also make the
balloon stick to the wall. Do you think this is caused by the same thing that makes the pieces of paper, foil, and Styrofoam jump to the
balloon?
Where's the Chemistry?
Everything is made up of atoms. Atoms are made up of extraordinarily tiny particles called protons, neutrons, and electrons. The
protons and neutrons are in the middle of the atom and the electrons, which are much smaller, zoom around the outside. Protons have
a positive
electric charge, electrons have a negative electric charge, and neutrons have no charge at all.
The fibers in a sweater and the rubber in a balloon are normally neutral having the same number of protons and electrons.
Make a Balloon Ec-Static
The fibers in a sweater and the rubber in a balloon are normally neutral having the same
number of protons and electrons.
When you rub a balloon on a sweater, for example, some electrons come off and end up on the balloon.
The fibers have lost electrons giving them a positive charge. The rubber gained
electrons giving it a negative charge.
The fibers have lost electrons giving them a positive charge. The rubber gained electrons giving it a negative charge. Since electrons
have a negative charge, the balloon now has a negative charge. But the sweater fibers lost some of their electrons, so now the fibers
have a positive charge (they have more protons than electrons). Positive and negative attract so if you bring the balloon near the
fibers, they move toward the balloon.
The positively charged fibers are now attracted to the attracted to the
negatively charged balloon.
The positively charged fibers are now attracted to the negatively charged balloon. When you bring the balloon near a little piece of
paper, the negative balloon repels the electrons in the paper so part of the paper near the balloon is positive. Since positive and
negative attract, the paper moves toward the balloon. The negatively charged balloon attracts the paper. The fibers in a sweater and
the rubber in a balloon are normally neutral having the same number of protons and electrons. The fibers have lost electrons giving
them a positive charge. The rubber gained electrons giving it a negative charge. The positively charged fibers are now attracted to the
negatively charged balloon. The negatively charged balloon attracts the paper.
The negatively charged balloon attracts the paper.
CHECK THIS OUT …. LOTS OF RESOURCES
The American Chemical Society develops materials for elementary school age children to
spark their interest in science and teach developmentally appropriate chemistry concepts.
The Activities for Children collection includes hands-on activities, articles, puzzles, and
games on topics related to children’s everyday experiences. The collection can be used to supplement
the science curriculum, celebrate National Chemistry Week, develop Chemists Celebrate Earth Day
events, invite children to give science a try at a large event, or to explore just for fun.
SNAP CRACKLE
POP
They say opposites attract and that couldn't be truer
these fun static electricity experiments. Find out
about positively and negatively charged particles
using a few basic items, can you control if they will be
attracted or unattracted to each other?
with
What you'll need:
•
•
•
•
2 inflated balloons with string attached
Your hair
Aluminium can
Woolen fabric
Instructions:
1. Rub the 2 balloons one by one against the
woolen fabric, then try moving the
balloons together, do they want to or are
they unattracted to each other?
2. Rub 1 of the balloons back and forth on your hair then slowly it pull it
away, ask someone nearby what they can see or if there's nobody else
around try looking in a mirror.
3. Put the aluminum can on its side on a table, after rubbing the balloon
on your hair again hold the balloon close to the can and watch as it
rolls towards it, slowly move
the balloon away from the can and it will follow.
What's happening?
Rubbing the balloons against the woolen fabric or your hair creates static
electricity. This involves negatively charged particles (electrons) jumping to
positively charged objects. When you rub the balloons against your hair or
the fabric they become negatively charged, they have taken some of the
electrons from the hair/fabric and left them positively charged.
They say opposites attract and that is certainly the case in these experiments,
your positively charged hair is attracted to the negatively charged balloon
and starts to rise up to meet it. This is similar to the aluminium can which is
drawn to the negatively charged balloon as the area near it becomes
positively charged, once again opposites attract.
In the first experiment both the balloons were negatively charged after
rubbing them against the woolen fabric, because of this they were
unattracted to each other.
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Who would have thought that the plastic spoon would be the new magic
wand of today! I can show you how much science is within the reach of
that plastic spoon that you get with that spoon from the local restaurant.
Hang around and become mesmerized!
MATERIALS
Coarse salt
Ground black pepper
Plastic spoon
Wool scarf
Puffed rice
Cereal
DIRECTIONS: Sprinkle salt and pepper on a tabletop and mix
them together. Challenge students to use the spoon to separate the pepper
from the salt. Have pity after a few seconds. Retrieve the spoon and rub it
vigorously on a wool scarf. Then hold it about an inch above the mixture (but
not touching). The pepper will leap to the spoon and stick to it.
WHY IT WORKS: Rubbing the spoon gives it a negative charge, which
attracts the pepper. It also attracts the salt, but the light flakes of pepper rise
up before the heavier grains of salt. If you lower the spoon, the salt will jump
up too.
ANOTHER TRICK: Hold the rubbed spoon over some puffed rice cereal. The grains jump up to
the spoon, hang there and then--if there's enough static charge--suddenly fly off.
WHY IT WORKS: The grains are attracted to the negatively charged spoon and cling to it until
they, too, become negatively charged. Then, because like charges repel, they shoot off.