Static Electricity Fun

When my little brother, Ty, was around three or four years old, my older siblings and I liked to rub balloons that we got from parties on his head. It would work really well; we always got hair to connect to the balloon. We knew it was static electricity, but I did not know how it worked. Now I know! So when we rubbed the balloon on his head, we created friction. Electrons from his hair transferred to the balloon, making the balloon negatively charged. From losing electrons, Ty's hair became positively charged. The balloon and his hair were attracted to each other because they wanted to become neutral, so when we pulled the balloon a little away from his head, the hair stuck to the balloon.

The balloon is an insulator, meaning the part that rubbed against his head is the only part of the balloon that was charged. If we had turned the balloon around, the hair would not have stuck to it.

I have another story that is more recent for static electricity. In New York over winter break, the weather was really cold and dry. Arushi and I kept on accidentally shocking each other during the trip. Even if we were wearing all our layers and our coats, we would shock each other. Because objects can keep their charge imbalances longer where there is low humidity, like New York in the winter, we would shock each other as our electrons from our skin or the material transferred everywhere, making everything positively or negatively charged.