Do You Know What Static Electricity Is?

Conduct a simple experiment and find out what static electricity is. What will you need for this
experiment? A dry plastic comb, an indoor tap, and your head of clean dry hair (or anybody’s)

What’s next? First, turn on the tap and slowly adjust it until you have got a very thin stream of
flowing water. Remember that it must be a very thin stream. Next, use the plastic comb and brush it
through your dry hair ten times. Bring the comb close to the flowing water slowly, making sure

not to touch the water. You will notice the thin stream of water bending towards the comb.

Why is it such? When you use the comb to brush your hair, what happens is the tiny parts of
the atoms in your hair, called electrons, are collected on the comb. These electrons have a negative
charge. Since your comb has this negative charge, it will be attracted to things that have a positive
charge. It’s just like how magnets are attracted to certain metals.

When you bring the negatively charged comb near the tap, it is attracted to the positive
force of the water. The attraction is strong enough to actually pull the water towards the comb as it
is flowing!

You can use tissue paper if you want to try another experiment with your comb. Tear the
tissue paper into tiny pieces — as tiny as you can. Then, brush your comb through your hair ten
times. Your comb Will be charged. Bring the comb close to the tiny pieces of tissue paper. The tiny
bits of tissue paper will ’jump up’ as if attracted to the comb. It is exactly the same way the water is
pulled to the comb.

The two simple experiments show you what static electricity is. Isn’t it wonderfuJ? You can
try this very simple yet interesting experiment at home or in school.

Adapted from: https://sciencebob.com/bend-water-with-static-electricity/

1 To conduct an experiment on ___________________________, you need a dry plastic

comb indoor tap and yours or anybody’s clean dry hair.

2. Make sure you adjust the tap until you get _____________________ of flowing water.

3. Brush your clean dry hair using the plastic comb ___________________________

4. Bring the comb close to the flowing water slowly without ___________________________.

5. The thin stream of water ___________________________ towards the comb.

6. the electrons, which are the tiny parts of _________________________ in our hair, are
collected on the comb.
7. The negatively charged comb is attracted to ____________________________________ of
the stream of flowing water.

8. Another experiment to show static electricity is using tiny pieces of ___________________

Complete the table below with a word from the text.

For each question, write your answer in the space provided.

Meaning Word
9. Carry out
10. Extremely minute

Answers

Do You Know What Static Electricity Is?

1 Static electricity
2 A thin stream
3 Ten times
4 Touching the water
5 Keep bending
6 The atoms
7 The positive force
8 Tissue paper
9 conduct
10 tiny