I was recently videotaping on Sanibel Island in Florida. Looking at the video later, I saw something that I had not noticed while taping. In one frame when I was photographing distant lightning, a streamer of spark about three feet long can be seen leaping upwards from a nearby car. Luckily, this spark did not connect to the lightning bolt, but it showed that the potential was there for me to have a much closer experience with lightning.

This experiment is closely related to my close call with the lightning. It will give you an idea about why that spark jumped upwards. You will need

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This week's experiment is an important part of my work. When demonstrating static electricity in my science shows, I always keep the hair drier nearby and I pay close attention to the weather forecast. To see how the weather and a hair drier fit in with static electricity, you will need:

- a hair drier
- several balloons
- small pieces of paper
- your hair (or a piece of cloth if you are "hair challenged" like me)
- a wet cloth or paper towel

First, blow up a balloon and tie it off. Small, cheap balloon work the best, but any sort should do the job. Then, tear some tiny bits of paper and place them on a flat surface. The pieces should be smaller than your fingernail. Rub the balloon briskly on your hair or a piece of cloth and then bring it near the pieces of paper. If you generated enough static electricity, then some of the pieces of paper should jump up to the balloon. If the paper did not jump to the balloon, then turn on the hair drier and use it to dry your hair and the balloon. Be careful not to get the balloon hot enough for it to pop. Once the balloon is dry, try it again. This time, the paper should jump very well for you.

Next, take the wet cloth and rub it gently over the surface of the entire surface of balloon. You want the balloon to be damp. Then rub the wet cloth lightly over your hair, to make it damp as well. Try rubbing the balloon on your hair again and bring it near the bits of paper. This time, you will get very little reaction, if any at all. Once again, dry the balloon and your hair with the hair drier and the paper will once again jump up to the balloon.

Why would water cause this? When you rub the balloon against your hair, you are transferring electrons (tiny, negatively charged pieces of atoms) from your hair to the balloon. Because electricity does not flow easily over rubber, the electrons are trapped there, building up a strong, negative static charge. It is this charge that attracts the bits of paper.

Rubbing the damp balloon against your wet hair still moved electrons from your hair to the balloon, but the water formed a conducting pathway. Instead of remaining trapped on the balloon, the electrons flowed across its surface to your skin and then to the ground. You never built up enough of a static charge to attract the paper bits. When you used the hair drier to dry the balloon and your hair, you removed this pathway, and once again the static charge could build up.

As the weather gets colder, the air is usually drier. That is why you get a lot more static shocks in the winter than in the summer. That is also why many science teachers save their unit on electricity until the coldest month. It makes the experiments much easier to do successfully.

Can you really light a lightbulb with a balloon? Of course you can!

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This week's experiment is one that I played with while waiting for one of my programs to start. I started with one balloon, and then added another. As I tried different things, I began to have fun with the charged balloons. To try it yourself, you will need:

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We are used to associating electricity with light bulbs, but most people expect it to take a lot of power to light them. For incandescent bulbs, that is true, but with fluorescents, things are a bit different.

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Did you know that your television can show you how much smoke, dust and other pollution you have in the air of your home?

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This project has science fair potential.

I have always loved lightning. Here is a safe experiment that you can try for your next storm.

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This project has science fair potential.

Have you ever noticed that when you bring your hand near the television screen that it sometimes makes the hair on your hand stand up? It has a charge of static electricity, and that charge can be strong enough to produce a spark.

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Electrostatic fields can do some very interesting things. This is a simple trick that you can do almost anywhere, as long as you carry a balloon in your pocket.

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We are used to thinking that it takes a lot of energy to produce light. This time, we will see that even a small amount of the right kind of energy can give us some light.

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Make a stream of water move without touching it.

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Learn to construct a 25,000 volt Leyden Jar from materials found around the house. This dramatic, yet safe, demonstration is a great way to learn about electrostatics, charges, and circuits.

This project has science fair potential.

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Producing Static Charges

What is responsible for the sparks you get when you scuff your feet on the carpet?