Startling Static!

This week in science Year 4 investigated the effects of static electricity on various materials and objects.
We created static electricity (non-moving electricity) by rubbing balloons through our hair, allowing invisible electrons with a negative charge to build up on the surface of the balloon. We then wanted to find out whether the static electricity had the power to attract or repel different objects.
We found that all the objects we tested were attracted to the negatively charged balloons. We were then curious about how to make the balloons repel an object. We came up with a hypothesis that since the balloons have a negative charge and have attracted objects that all have either a positive or neutral charge, that the balloons might repel an object with a negative charge. To test our hypothesis we charged two balloons with static electricity and were very excited to see that the two balloons repelled one another.
Through this experiment we were able to come to the conclusion that opposite charges attract and the same charges repel, and we had a blast! :)