Sunday

Science Sunday: Different Strokes

We have been having a lot of fun
exploring 
Static Electricity
with the use of...
...THIS book.

(You can read more about the first experiments
we did with Static Electricity by clicking HERE.)

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This week we used...
...some balloon friends to help us
with our experiments.

In the first part of our...
..."Different Strokes" experiment,
we charged a balloon by rubbing...
...a sleeping bag over the balloon's surface
a few times.

Then we placed the balloon over different items
to see if they would be attacted
to the balloon.

We discovered that...
...pencil shavings...
...thread...
...hair...
...and even book pages were attracted to the
balloon's surface.

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In part two of our experiment...
...we taped two tied balloons 
onto our dining room table.

We then charged both balloons with paper towels,
and discovered they repelled each
because of their similar charges.

Next, we charged one balloon with the paper towel
and the other balloon with Saran Wrap...
...and the balloons couldn't stay away
from one another!

Like Charges=Repelling Objects
Dislike Charges=Attracting Objects

Finally, we went back to giving the balloons
like charges...
 ...by rubbing them both...


 ...with paper towels.

We then made an interesting discovery...

 When we placed different objects
in between the repelling balloons...
 ...like this ruler,
the balloons would both be attracted to the
object.

Why is this?
When the negatively charged balloons are brought
near to the object,
they induce a positive charge near the surface
of the object.
(The extra electrons on the balloons repel
electrons near the surface of the object.)
Since opposite charges attract,
the balloons are stuck to the object.

Pretty cool, huh?

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For more cool Science experiements,
head on over to 

3 comments:

  1. I love AIM books. I should look into some more

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great ideas. Pinning this one. Came over from Science Sunday.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, pretty cool! I like the faces on the balloons, too :)
    Almost Unschoolers

    ReplyDelete