Balloons and static electricity – charging by friction, attraction and repulsion

Integrated ScienceElectricity & MagnetismAges 13–14

Rub a balloon back and forth on a sweater: electrons move from the sweater to the balloon, so the balloon becomes negatively charged and the sweater positively charged by the same amount. Bring the balloon close to the wall and it is attracted and sticks, even though the wall is neutral (charging by induction); show the charges to count the + and − signs on each object, and add a second balloon to compare attraction to a neutral object with repulsion between two negatively charged objects. Adapted from the "Balloons and Static Electricity" simulation by PhET Interactive Simulations, University of Colorado Boulder (CC BY 4.0); rewritten.

Lesson: Static electricity, charging by friction