Static electricity
Why does your hair stand up after you rub a balloon on it?
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Explain
Rubbing a balloon makes it sticky.
It pulls your hair up.
Everything has tiny positive and negative charges. Usually they balance.
When you rub a balloon on your hair, tiny negative electrons move onto the balloon. This is static electricity.
Opposite charges pull together, and the same charges push apart. So your hair reaches for the balloon!
Rubbing transfers electrons, not protons. The balloon gains electrons and becomes negative, and your hair is left positive.
Like charges repel, and unlike charges attract. The force grows as the charges get closer.
Lightning is a giant discharge of static charge built up in storm clouds.
- Rubbing moves electrons
- Charge builds up
- Opposites attract
Want the full story?
The numbers of electrons in the sim are made up for the picture. Real rubbing moves billions of them. Some materials give up electrons more readily than others, so what happens depends on the materials.
Try it at home
Ask a grown-up to help
You need a balloon, small pieces of tissue paper.
You need: a balloon, small pieces of tissue paper.
Rub a balloon on your hair. Whoosh!
- Tear tissue into tiny bits.
- Rub a balloon on your hair or a jumper.
- Hold it near the tissue.
What's happening: the charged balloon attracts the tissue, even without touching it.
Balloons are a choking hazard. Keep burst pieces away from small children.
Physics is life
Your body
You can get a small shock.
Daily life
Clothes stick after a tumble dryer.
Nature
Lightning is giant static.
Space
Lightning happens on other planets.
Quick check
Question 1 of 3
Words to know
Static electricity: Electric charge that has built up in one place.
- Static electricity
- Electric charge that has built up in one place.
- Electric charge
- A property of tiny particles that makes them attract or repel.
- Electron
- A tiny negative particle that moves around the nucleus.