As we know, our life was filled with electricity, especially static electricity. Have you noticed every little thing this happened in your daily day? So, Pandai Lab 11 wants to try any static electricity experiment that can be done at home. This is so easy and exciting to try. Believe me!
This simple activity will explore and focus on the static electricity concept. All of these experiments are fun and provide a good “wow factor!”. Let’s do it. Here the details for experiment:
Date: 8 December 2020
Title: Static Electricity Experiment
Materials: balloons, tin can, cutting papers, a ruler, a cloth, water and paper cups
Procedures:
A. Attract paper on a ruler
1. Tear off several bits of paper about the size of a pea or smaller and place them on a table or counter.
2. Then, rub a ruler on a cloth.
3. After that, bring the comb near to the paper bits.
4. You may see the paper sticks on the ruler. It was amazing.
B. Balloon and tin can
1. Rub a balloon on a cloth.
2. Then, put the can on its side on a table or the floor. You can place any flat and smooth surface. Hold it with your finger until it stays still.
3. Hold the balloon about an inch in front of the can. The can will start to roll.
4. Move the balloon away from the can. The can will move slowly and the can will follow the balloon.
5. If you move the balloon to the other side of the can, the can will roll in the other direction.
C. Bend water with a ruler/balloon
1. Rub a ruler on a cloth.
2. Then, turn on the faucet so only a thin stream of water is running.
3. Bring the ruler to the side of the water. The water will bend when the ruler is brought near it.
What makes this possible and happened?
Alright, now you can see all the results from this experiment. It is awesome, right? Ya! You guys already learned a new concept that is called static electricity. First, what is static electricity?
Static electricity is the result of an imbalance between negative and positive charges in an object. These charges can build up on the surface of an object until they find a way to be released or discharged. The rubbing of certain materials against one another can transfer negative charges, or electrons. The material is made up of atoms. And atoms are composed of protons, neutrons and electrons. Electrons revolve around a nucleus formed by protons and neutrons. If we draw two materials close together, electrons usually jump from one to the other. There are materials that, on losing electrons, are left with positive charge (hair, papers or water) and materials that are left with negative charge (balloon, cellophane, tin cans). Materials with an opposite load will be attracted, whilst those with the same load will be repelled.
All of these experiments, we are manually moving electrons from one material to another. The ruler and balloon stands up because it is full of electrons. The electrons don’t like each other and are trying to get as far away from each other as possible.
You can check the reference on this link for more details:
https://frugalfun4boys.com/static-electricity-science-experiments/
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