Science Sunday: Ghostly Static

As we continued with our Static Electrictiy

study this past week

(you can see what else we have learned

about Static Electricity by clicking

HERE and HERE),

we brought some "spooks"...

...into our Science studies.

I stumbled upon this

Halloween Science Experiment

over at Science Bob,

and it just fit in SO WELL with our

Static Electricity unit, 

we had to give it a go...

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We "tweaked" our experiment a bit

from the original by using

coffee filters for our ghosts

(instead of tissues)

and

paper towels to charge our balloons

(instead of our hairs).

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After charging...

...the balloons with paper towels...

...we carefully placed the balloons near

one of the "ghosts"...

...and watched as it was "eerily" drawn up to

the balloon.

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We found....

...that it was easy to get the ghosts...

....to stick to the balloons,
but getting them to "float" took a bit more finesse.

However, after a few tries...

...we had out little ghosties
dancing all over the table!

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So, why does this work?

Science Bob explains it like this:

When you rub the balloon through your hair,  

(or with the paper towel)

invisible electrons (with a negative charge)

build up on the surface of the balloon.

The electrons have the power to pull very light objects

(with a positive charge) toward them

– in this case, the tissue ghost

(the coffee filter ghost).

Just boo-tastic!

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For more spooky-
and not-so-spooky-
fun with Science,
head on over to Science Sunday...

And for other fun activities to do
with your kiddos,
check out the
Living Life Intentionally Linkie Party
and
ABC's and 123's: Show and Tell...