Learn about how static electricity causes objects to be attracted to each other!
MATERIALS:
A plastic comb
A narrow stream of water from a tap
Dry hair
TIME ESTIMATED:
5-10 minutes
DIRECTIONS:
Turn on the water so it is falling from the tap in a narrow stream.
Run the comb through your hair, just as you normally would when brushing it. Do this about 10 times.
Slowly move the comb towards the stream of water. Watch closely to see what happens!
Think LIke a Scientist!
What two things interacting made the water stream bend?
HOW DOES IT WORK?
The static electricity you built up by combing your hair attracts the stream of water, bending it towards the comb like magic!
When you brush your hair with the comb, negatively charged particles called electrons jump from your hair to the comb as they rub together, so that the comb now has extra electrons and is negatively charged. Water contains an equal amount of positively and negatively charged particles, so it is neutral. Because positive and negative charges are attracted to each other, when you move the negatively charged comb towards the stream of water, it attracts the water's positively charged particles and the stream bends!
Further exploration:
In this experiment, you used your observations about the behavior of the water and what you already knew about the properties of water to understand why the water stream bent towards the comb when the comb was placed near it. Scientists use their observations and prior knowledge about the things they study to make explanations all of the time! This is called inductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning is when you observe something and then create a bigger explanation to explain why that thing happened, and why other related things would also happen for the same reason.
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