GENERAL SANTOS DOCTORS’ MEDICAL SCHOOL FOUNDATION, INC.

Bulaong Subdivision, Barangay West, General Santos City 9500

Tel No.: (083) 302-3507, Telefax No.: (083) 552-9793
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Name:______________________________________
Date:_____________

Activity 1
Water and Electrostatic Forces
The polar content bonding of hydrogen and oxygen in water
results in interesting behavior, such as water’s response to
electrostatic force.

Safety note:
 Electrostatic force is very sensitive to the environment.
 As you conduct this activity, be careful no to get fingerprints
on the materials.
 Do not allow the materials to touch your clothing.
 Do not conduct this activity on a metal table.
 You may repeat each step several times, taking these
precautions each time.

Materials:
Hand-rubber comb
Paper
Water faucet with running fresh water
Procedure: For Paper and Comb
 1. Clean the hand-rubber comb. Remove all of the water.
2. Tear up the paper into tiny pieces. Make a small pile of pieces of
paper.
3. Produce a negative (-) charge on the comb by rapidly passing it
through dry, greaseless hair. Bring the charged comb near the pile of
the pieces of paper. Record what you observe.

Questions:
1. Describe the interaction between each pair of materials you used.
Use the terms attract, repel, and no attraction.
When the initial electrically neutral comb is near the pile of pieces of
paper, there was no attraction between them. But, when the
negatively charged comb (done by rapidly passing it through dry,
greaseless hair), was near the pile of pieces of paper, the two
materials attract. This is because they have, unlike charges. In some
cases, if the electrostatic charges of the comb and paper, are the
same, they’ll repel each other.
2. If your materials did not react as predicted, why do you think this may
be? What could you do differently?
 If the materials did not react as predicted, this may be because the
precautions were not taken correctly. Or maybe, all the material’s
electrostatic charges are neutral. For this reason, you can repeat
each step several times, taking the precautions carefully. And make
sure the materials either have a positive or negative charge for them
to repel or attract each other. If not, there will be no attraction in
between.

Procedure: For Comb and Water

1. Predict what will happen to the stream of water when:
a. an electrostatic charge is brought near it.
b. records your prediction in the table below using the terms repel,
attract, and no reaction.
Table 1: Interactions between a flowing stream of water and electrostatic
charges.
Movement of water
Object Predicted Observed
Comb Move towards the Move towards the
comb comb

Questions:
1. How do your observations of the interaction between the stream of
water and electrostatic charge on the comb show that water is a polar
substance?
My observations showed that water is a polar substance because
upon the change in the movement of the water when the electrostatic
negative charge comb is near, the water only bends starting where
the comb is, towards the end. Such observation means that there is
an uneven distribution of electron density.
2. In this experiment, we used a plastic comb, which tends to take on a
negative charged when rubbed on hair. How do you think your
observations might have been different if you had used a positively
charged item instead of the negatively charged comb?
Given the fact that a negatively charged comb seems to attract the
water, a positively charged comb would probably repel each other. As
what is said that like charges repel each other and unlike charges
attract. Maybe, the electric force between two objects would be
repulsive since they carry a “like” charge, that is both are positively
charged.