Monday, March 2, 2015

Static Electricity!

Eighth graders are starting electricity this week.  To begin, we need to talk about electric charges.

Like Charges REPEL
Unlike Charges ATTRACT

This is a dating show, people.  Would you want to date someone you're related to?  NO!  Continuing down that route leads to inbreeding and all sorts of preventable diseases.  You want to date someone who you're not related to. 

Here was our experiment.  I changed one thing when I got to school that morning and tested it out.  I don't know if it was because it's really dry right now, but that balloon stuck to that wall for a long time! So this experiment as it was wasn't going to work out.  Instead, I found that you could stick it onto your hand (hand on top, balloon statically attracted to your hand underneath), but since you're grounded, it doesn't last as long.  I had one group get fabulous results that really showed that the longer you rubbed the balloon on your shirt/in your hair/etc. the longer it stayed attracted to your hand.  The other kids had some warbling results.  Overall, the kids liked the experiment and understood that an electric charges creates a force (push or pull) without touching something.





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