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 

Science Sunday...