Balloon Hair Magic
✨ A rubbed balloon makes your hair stand up and then bends a falling stream of water without ever touching it.
🧰 You need
- a balloon
- your hair or a woollen cloth
- small torn bits of paper
- a tap that can run in a thin stream
👀 What you will see
Your hair follows the balloon and stands away from your head. Paper bits leap up and stick to the balloon. The falling water bends sideways towards the balloon as long as the balloon stays charged.
🧪 Do it
- Blow up the balloon and tie it.
- Rub it hard on your hair or on wool for about ten seconds.
- Hold it just above the paper bits and see what jumps up.
- Turn the tap on so the water runs in a thin steady stream.
- Bring the rubbed balloon close to the stream, without touching it, and watch the water bend.
- Rub the balloon again and try both tricks a second time.
💡 Why it happens
Everything is made of tiny particles, some carrying a small electric charge. Rubbing moves some of those charges from your hair onto the balloon, so the balloon ends up with extra charge, which we call static electricity. A charged balloon pulls on light things like paper, hair and even a thin stream of water. The pull fades after a while because the extra charge slowly leaks away into the air.
🔁 Now try this
Rub the balloon on wool instead of hair and count how many paper bits it can lift each time.
🤔 Think about it
Why is this trick much harder to do on a rainy day than on a dry day?
🧘 Ask the Acharya
“Why is this trick much harder to do on a rainy day than on a dry day?” — ask him and he will explain it from your own chapters.
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