Plasma ball centerThe smallest thing around is the atom, which has three main parts – the core (nucleus) houses the protons and neutrons, and the electron zips around in a cloud around the nucleus.


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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42 Responses to “Ten Static Electricity Experiments to Mystify Your Kids”

  1. The charge built up by friction (static electricity) is quickly dissipated through the moisture in the air. With the water wiggle, it’s quick the water is only in one particular area, not surrounding the whole balloon. Also water is a polar molecule, which makes it reach the way it does when you bring a charged balloon close. Good question!

  2. Caryn Gilbert says:

    If humidity and rain make it so there is lower charge how does the water wiggle experiment work?
    Thanks, Enoch (Caryn’s Son).

  3. This is one of the very few experiments that didn’t have a video, however in a couple of weeks I am releasing a new experiment just in static electricity (with a video) that will have a lot of cool ideas for you to try. Check the Summer e-Camp Electric Lab soon!

  4. Kimberly Voelkel says:

    I can’t find the video. Can you make that video appear?

  5. When you ground (touch an object connected to the Earth) yourself, the plus and minus charges balance out and you have a neutral charge again. 🙂

  6. Lori Brekke says:

    When you steal electrons from something like your hair, how does your hair gain those electrons back?

  7. Grace Ferguson says:

    Hey Aurora, Malcolm and I just did the Wiggly Wonder experiment and thought this was the coolest ever! Malcolm wants to know if this would work with Orange Juice. We don’t have any and thought it would take a great deal of orange juice and someone to create that steady stream…lol…Malcolm doesn’t think it will it not straight water. What do you say to Malcolm , then?

  8. I’ll have my team connect with you right away!

  9. Charity Smith says:

    Came to the static electricity experiments via the “Detecting the electric field” activity, but it says I don’t have access to this content. I have run into this quite frequently today. This is the first time I have really been able to look around the site and plan our science lessons from Supercharged Science for next week. Every time I click on something or try to download anything, I am denied access. What exactly do I have access to? I am getting quite frustrated and don’t have time to click on every single thing, only to find out I don’t have access. How may I gain access to the static electricity experiments?

  10. Rukhama Halim says:

    You need a comb to make static electricty

  11. It has to do with the way the older TVs (called “CRT”) created the image on the screen. They did so by firing electrons at the back of the screen which created an electrical charge on the screen, which built up to make a large static charge. Since the screen was made of glass, it caused the glass to become charged. A flat screen (the kind that are popular today) works at low voltage (the CRT were high voltage), so there’s no static charge build up on the screen.

  12. Heather May says:

    why does a TV screen have static electricity?

  13. Not necessarily. You can jump in with static electricity and then move onto the circuits. You can do one without the other first. 🙂

  14. Stacy Shilling says:

    Are the kids supposed to watch the Circuits video and read about circuits before doing this? I am a bit confused.

  15. Laura Hoggard says:

    A bubbles experiment is go outside when it is -0 degrees or less then take bubbles and blow them they will freeze in to ice bubbles

  16. It’s not really “lighting up” that you’re looking for as much as a quick flash. You’ll get a flash anytime you’ve build up enough electrons, like from a balloon that’s been rubbed on hair, or your finger after scuffing around in socks, or down a plastic slide at the park the second your feet touch the ground.

  17. Shae Tebbetts says:

    We actually tried that out of desperation since the faucet wasn’t working. (It was my son’s idea) But it didn’t light the bulb. Was that the expected result?

  18. Cool! What happens if you touch it to a balloon you’ve rubbed on your head?

  19. Shae Tebbetts says:

    Yay! We got it to work by changing our socks, just as you suggested. The small bathroom rug was sufficient. We also tried touching it to the kitchen sink rather than faucet, thinking the finish on the faucet may affect the outcome. Thanks for the fun trick. 🙂

  20. Shae Tebbetts says:

    For the neon bulb experiment, does it matter how large the carpet? We used a small bathroom rug since we don’t have anything larger. Also tried a blanket. Neither worked. And just to verify, are we to touch one end of the tiny wire coming from the bulb (the wire that is exposed once the bulb is removed from its casing) to the metal while holding the other end?

  21. In July, the Physics Lab, Lasers Lab, Electricity and Robotics Lab, and next month you’ll be getting access to the big Chemistry lab! 🙂 Enjoy!

  22. I would like to know what this week’s e-camp project is? Thanks.

  23. 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!

  24. Angel Houston says:

    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?

  25. Karri Woods says:

    THANK YOU 🙂

  26. 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!

  27. Karri Woods says:

    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.

  28. Great! I have added this to my video shoot list.

  29. Karen Cossey says:

    I agree, a video would be great. You can give extra tips when you’re talking about the experiments.

  30. 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.

  31. Deidre Hemphill says:

    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!

  32. 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.

  33. Robin Scharnick says:

    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.

  34. 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?

  35. Dawn Schlosser says:

    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?

  36. Kimberly Maki says:

    hey, i like the astronomy video.

  37. Amy Gregerson says:

    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

  38. 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!)

  39. sidney thompson says:

    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

  40. Temporary User says:

    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.

  41. Temporary User says:

    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