How Do You Bend Water With Static Electricity?
Static electricity does more than shock you when you go to open a door, or attract dust and pet hair to your furniture and clothes. It can actually bend a stream of water. This is a good science demonstration for kids because it shows how an electrically charged object attracts some things with a neutral charge. • Charge an object. What you’re doing here is collecting electrons on the object. Electrons give the object a negative charge. • Take a dry (preferably nylon) comb and run it through your hair about 10 times. Your hair must be dry as well. • Take a plastic spoon or a balloon and rub it vigorously against nylon, acrylic, or fur. • Turn on your faucet. Only let a very thin stream of water flow. It needs to be a smooth stream, not one that breaks up. • Place the object right next to the stream of water without touching it. If you are doing it correctly, you can see the water moving towards the object. See “Why this works” below for an explanation. Experiment. Change the variables,
