Static Electricity is Cool

This most excellent hairdo is thanks to thousands of volts of static electricity!

Not to worry, it’s harmless.  Well, almost harmless as it can give you a pretty good good snap!  

Did you ever get out of the car in the winter and get a shock? Yep!  That’s static electricity.

In future posts, you’ll find several great science experiments with static electricity on this site that I hope you’ll try yourself.

For now, try this one:

Take a tissue and tear off several little bits of paper onto the table.  A half-dozen will do.

Now blow up a balloon and rub it on your hair about five times or so and bring it over the bits of paper.

The paper will wiggle and even jump up to the balloon!  That’s static electricity in action!

Look for more static electricity experiments to come!