Angel
and Kevin's
Science Fair Project
Angel
and Kevin's
Science Fair Project
"Static Electricity"
Static Electricity
Introduction
In our project we would like to show how static works. Although we sometimes create static accidentally, we can also use it for things like photocopiers.
Hypothesis
We think that women’s nylon stockings will work better than combs and balloons.
Materials
Research/Sources
of Information
Science Made Simple (www.sciencemadesimple.com/static.html)
How Things Work by Steve Parker
How Things Work by John Langone
New York Public Library Science Desk Reference
Science Encyclopedia
Vocabulary
Balanced Atom – Contains positive charges in the nucleus of the atom and an equal amount of negative charges orbiting the nucleus in the form of electrons.
Lightning – A cloud builds up an electrical potential (charge). The electrical charge is then transferred throughout the cloud. Electrons create negative and positive charges. Lightning is the reaction that neutralizes these charges.
Static Electricity – Electricity that is made of charges at rest produced by friction.
Procedure
Experiment
1
Swinging
Cereal
1. Tie a piece of cereal to one end of a 12 inch piece of thread.
2. Hang the thread in a way so that the cereal does not touch anything else.
3. Charge a comb or a balloon by running it through dry hair several times or by running it through a wool sweater.
4. Slowly bring the comb near the cereal. It will swing to touch the comb. Hold it still until the cereal jumps away by itself.
Experiment
2
Bending
Water
1. Run the tap slow/medium.
2. Charge the comb or balloon as in Experiment 1.
3. Bring the comb or balloon towards the water and watch the water bend!
Results
Experiment 1: The cereal moved as expected towards, then away from the charged objects. The women’s nylon stockings worked best, the comb second best, and balloon last.
Experiment 2: The water only bent when the tap ran at low speed. The comb worked better than the balloon. We did not test the women’s stockings for this experiment.
Conclusion
We thought the swinging cereal would be the most reproducible experiment. Our hypothesis was correct.
Project
Summary
1.
How
did we come up with my project idea?
My mom got shocked by a coat hanger and we wanted to find out what exactly had happened to her.
2.
What
did we learn from my experiment?
The experiment showed us that static electricity is everywhere.
3.
How
close were my hypothesis and conclusion?
Our hypothesis and conclusion were the same.
4.
Did we learn anything new from our project?
We learned a lot of new information, including that photocopiers use static electricity.
5.
What
was the most interesting part of our project?
We thought the entire experiment was the most interesting part. We also enjoyed learning new things.
Angel
and Kevin
Grade
5
Mr. Murray, e97pem@mun.ca
St. Bonaventure’s College
St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada
