Activity: What's the Story with Static Electricity? - UCLA

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Van der Graaff Generator. http://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c2/Van_de_graaf_generator.svg/320 px-Van_de_graaf_generator.svg.png Lesson Background & Concepts for Teachers Additional information: The following background information was obtained from: http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/static.html You walk across the rug, reach for the doorknob and..........ZAP!!! You get a static shock. Or, you come inside from the cold, pull off your hat and......BOING!!! Static hair - static electricity makes your hair stand straight out from your head. What is going on here? And why is static more of a problem in the winter? To understand static electricity, we have to learn a little bit about the nature of matter. Or in other words, what is all the stuff around us made of? Atoms. Everything we see is made up of tiny little parts called atoms. The atoms are made of even smaller parts. These are called protons, electrons and neutrons. They are very different from each other in many ways. One way they are different is their "charge." Protons have a positive (+) charge. Electrons have a negative (-) charge. Neutrons have no charge. Usually, atoms have the same number of electrons and protons. Then the atom has no charge, it is "neutral." But if you rub things together, electrons can move from one atom to another. Some atoms get extra electrons. They have a negative charge. Other atoms lose electrons. They have a positive charge. When charges are separated like this, it is called static electricity. If two things have different charges, they attract, or pull towards each other. If two things have the same charge, they repel, or push away from each other.
So, why does your hair stand up after you take your hat off? When you pull your hat off, it rubs against your hair. Electrons move from your hair to the hat. Now each of the hairs has the same positive charge. Things with the same charge repel each other. So the hairs try to move away from each other. The farthest they can get is to stand up and away from all the other hairs. If you walk across a carpet, electrons move from the rug to you. Now you have extra electrons. Touch a door knob and ZAP! The electrons move from you to the knob. You get a shock. Copyright © 1995-2009, Science Made Simple, Inc. All Rights Reserved. PO Box 503, Voorhees, NJ 08043 Vocabulary / Definitions Word Definition Atoms Building block of all matter Electricity The movement of electrical charge Electrons Subatomical particle made up of a negative charge rotates around nucleus of an atom Nucleus The nucleus of an atom consists of protons, neutrons and electrons Neutrons Subatomical particle with neutral charge Protons Subatomical particle with positive charge Van der Graaff generator Lesson Closure Electrostatic generator that uses a belt and metal spheres to separate charges and cause a static electrical effect End the activity by making a human chain and transferring the electricity from person to person. Have the students predict how the experiment would work best. For example with more people less people, what types of objects or substances would help transfer the shock easier (water, plastic, ect.). References http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/static.html http://www.howstuffworks.com/vdg.htm http://education.jlab.org/qa/mathatom_04.html
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Activity: What's the Story with Static Electricity? - UCLA

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