Ten Static Electricity Experiments to Mystify Your Kids
The smallest thing around is the atom, which has three main parts – the core (nucleus) houses the protons and neutrons, and the electron zips in a ring around the core, much like the chunks of rocks and ice zip around the planet Saturn.
The proton has a positive charge, and the electron has a negative charge. In the hydrogen atom, which has one proton and one electron, the charges are balanced. If you steal the electron, you now have an unbalanced, positively charge atom and stuff really starts to happen. The flow of electrons is called electricity. We’re going to move electrons around and have them stick, not flow, so we call this ‘static electricity’.
These next experiments rely heavily on the idea that like charges repel and opposites attract. Your kids need to remember that these activities are all influenced by electrons, which are very small, easy to move around, and are invisible to the eye.
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Sorry about that – I really meant to make a video to go with this, since it’s a little confusing. You’ll want to make something that looks like a mop, only instead of the cotton strands, you’re using tissue paper. The mop handle is the wire coat hanger. If you make a notch in the coat hanger, it will sit better on your wire and not slip off so easily.
Funny side note – as I was sweeping up pine needles from my carpet last night, I noticed that they jumped right into the trash can when I got the dust pan (which was full of them) near the can. Turns out that just by sweeping them into the dust pan, it created a static charge on the pine needles, so they were attracted to the opposite charge of the can… it was so cool to watch them fly through the air and land IN the trash!
My 3 children are busily cutting paper strips and sanding a wire hanger to try the tailfeathers experiment, but I am having trouble understanding what to do with it. It is “Attach a piece of plastic with tape or clay to the center of the rod, making a V-groove so the handle sits better on the wire” that I don’t understand. Help? Is that so you can hold onto it without discharging the electricity?
THANK YOU
You’ll want to be sure it’s a DRY (not humid) day. If you rub a balloon on your head and you get the static effect in your hair (the hair sticks tot he balloon), then you the sock trick should work. Like any great scientist, if you try something and it doesn’t work… change your approach (different pair of socks, for example) and try again!
My name is Liam I am in the sixth grade, I have tried the socks and carpet method for the neon bulb along with putting a fleece blanket in the dryer they both didn’t work. What else should I try? Thank you.
Great! I have added this to my video shoot list.
I agree, a video would be great. You can give extra tips when you’re talking about the experiments.
Hmmm… would a video here help? I wonder if we can put together a video that will show all these demos in one. There are only a couple of experiments (this is one) that don’t have a video showing you step-by-step how to do the project. Let me know and I’ll put it on our list.
We also had a hard time understanding the instructions for the Electric Tail Feathers experiment. We ended up just skipping it, but I think a picture would have been a tremendous help.
My kids were totally distracted by making their own bubble solution, and the excuse to take the experimentation outdoors. Oh, well. I guess we’ll do the remainder of the experiments tomorrow.
It is fun, though, that all the ages are involved! At first my 13yo balked that these were baby experiments…until he had an idea!
Well, it depends on the kind of neon bulb you have. See if you can separate the bulb from the casing – you might have to carefully crack the plastic to do this – or you can try just using it in the casing itself.
How does one get the neon bulb out of its plastic casing? I am not seeing how anything much comes off of it. I was able to loosen and take off a nut and ring that were around it but that didn’t end up doing anything.
Yes, this higher the humidity, the less static electricity you’re going to see. If it’s raining, don’t even try until the weather clears. Static electricity is the build up of electrical charges (electrons). The water molecules in the air will discharge the electrons more quickly (allow the outer electrons to jump off and dissipate). The less the water vapor content in the air (like on a dry day), the more you’ve have static build-up, as there’s nothing to discharge to. Does this help?
Does humidity matter? You posed that question as part of the experiment but now we’re really wondering. We’ve played with balloons and static electricity plenty of times before, but since moving here (extremely humid and warm environment) we can’t get them to work! Is it something to do with the environment?
Cool! Me, too!
hey, i like the astronomy video.
me and my brother are having fun with this program! you guys have lots of fun experiments and you print the reading
material very well! keep up the good work
Unfortunately, no… there’s not enough energy stored in a static charge to pop an entire bag of popcorn – you need a hot burner on the stove or a microwave (that heats it by focusing high-energy light beams at your food). Same for the exploding egg… sorry, but these are more ‘video magic’ tricks than real science. (Although it would be WAY cool if they were real!)
We looked around the internet for other static electricity experiments and found one on YouTube where a teenager popped a bag of popcorn with a touch of his finger after his friends rubbed him all over with balloons. Ditto for exploding an egg. Are these ‘experiments’ possible?
Sidney
Marcelle Kinney again.
Actually, we do understand the tissue at the end of the wire. But, the handle part doesn’t make sense. As such, we did it our own way: (1) Straighten wire, (2) taped strips to one end, (3) made a hook with the other end, (4) hooked the hook on our chandelier.
Hooking it on the lamp over our homeschool table let us test it easily. OUr favorite experiment.
My name is Marcelle Kinney. My son is signed up but we are trying the high school so that’s why we are using the temporary password.
Anyways, I don’t understand the #6 experiment with tissue paper and hanger. Can you post a picture? We cut strips, straightened out the wire hanger but I don’t know where to tape the paper nor do I understand the handle part.
Marcelle