Today my sister came home and told us all about this "really cool" demonstration their teacher did in science class. She said that their teacher seemed to "make the paper fly up and stick to the ruler like magic."As she was describing this, I realized that it was most likely static electricity that caused the piece of paper to stick to the plastic ruler. So, I decided to try it myself. Using a plastic comb and a small piece of paper, I charged the comb by rubbing it vigorously against my shirt. As a result, when I brought it near the neutral piece of paper, it attracted the paper in an attempt to neutralize itself.
Specifically, the charged comb had either an excess or a deficiency of electrons. Since all objects want to be balanced/neutral, the comb was attempting to either gain or lose electrons in order to balance itself. To do this, it attracted the neutral piece of paper to attempt to lessen its charge.I thought it was funny that I thought of static electricity when my sister described her teacher's "magic trick."
1 comment:
heh heh. i must confess, it still feels like magic to me too. i like to think of this demonstration as proof of how strong electrostatic forces are. After all, the attractive force is easily greater than the gravitational force holding the piece of paper down
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