Oooh!
Can I try that?
I am using The Force!
Now, this is the closest I get to doing magic.
But this isn't actually a trick, this is a demonstration of static electricity
and it's a really fun way
way of getting your children interested in some really interesting phenomena.
Now watch that, just an ordinary pencil.
We balance it there, and rub it on this cloth.
Are you going to pop it?
Well, I hope not.
Now watch what happens to the pencil.
Oooooh!
Isn't that cool?
Yeah, can I try that? Yeah, give it a rub, I'll hold the cloth for you.
It's like you're pulling it round isn't it?
I could be using the force or something.
Well, yes I think you are.
When the balloon is rubbed against the cloth
it becomes charged with static electricity. When things are charged
with static electricity
they can attract or repel other things.
If two things have opposite charges
they attract, or pull towards each other. If two things have the same charge,
both positive or both negative, they repel or push away from each other.
It's a bit like the way that magnets can attract or repel each other,
but static electricity is definitely not the same as magnetism.
Look mum! It's attracting it. That's amazing Hector.
It's actually attracting it.
You can see lots of interesting effects using static electricity,
here are charged balloon is attracting a stream of water.
The balloon has a negative charge and there are positive charges in the water,
which are attracted towards the balloon.
It's the same with the pencil, there are positive charges in the pencil
and these are attracted towards the negatively charged balloon.
Everything contains electric charge, a mixture of positive and negative
and normally these cancel each other out.
But when we rub the balloon with the cloth,
some the negative charge from the cloth rubs off on the balloon.
The balloon gains a negative charge and the cloth is left with the positive charge.
As you rub, tiny particles called electrons are rubbed off onto the balloon.
Each electron has a negative charge and that's why the balloon becomes negatively charged.
To do my so-called magic trick
what I did was charge the straw up first by rubbing it.
And then, let it settle on the bottle.
Then when I bring my hand up
the charge in the straw is attracted to the charge in my hand.
And it starts to move towards my hand.
And David Copperfield is in the room!
Oh, oh my gosh. Goodness!
They are almost flying aren't they!
Playing with static electricity is a genuinely magical thing to do if you've never tried it before,
and it's amazing to think that just rubbing two things together
can make these tiny electrons move from one object to another.
I've been amazed at something I thought totally I knew and understood.
All the different activities we've been able to explore
have genuinely fascinated me and my son.
I am using The Force!