You can generate static electricity by rubbing a balloon against your jumper or even your hair! The tiny electric charge in this activity is completely safe.
The first thing that you need to do is blow up your balloon and tie off the end.
The next thing that we are going to do is get our plate and draw around it onto our tissue paper. You can then cut out this circle.
You can now take your balloon and rub it against your jumper for about a minute. This is going to generate some static electricity.
Now if you hold your balloon above your tissue paper snake you will see that it is attracted to balloon and will start to rise up towards it.
The reason this happens is because an electric charge is carried by tiny particles called protons and electrons. Protons carry a positive charge and electrons carry a negative charge. Charges of the same type repel each other, while different charges attract. When you rub the balloon, it picks up extra electrons, making it negatively charged. This causes the protons in the tissue paper to become attracted to the balloon and the edge of the paper picks up a positive charge.
You may like to try cutting some different shapes out of tissue paper and see how smaller/ larger shapes are affected by static electricity. Or you may like to see how other things react to static electricity. You might like to try turning on a tap, and seeing if the running water is attracted or repelled by static electricity.
The video tutorial for this activity is available on the Surrey Libraries Facebook Page
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