Floating Static Bands Build up a charge of static electricity on a plastic tube to float email to friend
print this page

Floating Static Bands
This activity was developed by our good friend Bruce Yeany who uses it to teach electrostatic propulsion and the repulsion of like charge.

You'll need a piece of PVC that is about 3 feet long. Tape a pencil onto the end of the PVC. Cut the thin Styrofoam sheet into strips that are 1 inch wide by 12 inches long. Use glue or a stapler to make a ring by joining the two ends.

Rub the Styrofoam band against the fur to build up a static charge. Place the "charged up" band on the table. Rub the fur up and down on the PVC pipe to build up a similar static charge.

Use the pencil on the end of the PVC pipe to pick up the band and toss it in the air. Quickly position the pipe underneath the band to make it float! This step is a little tricky and will take some practice, but don't give up. The like charges keep the static band hovering above the PVC pipe. You can even walk around the room and the band will stay suspended above the "magic wand" -- okay, PVC pipe!

How does it work?

Rubbing the fur against the static band and the PVC pipe transfers a negative charge to both objects. The band floats above the wand because the like charges repel one another. If you really want to impress someone, just tell them that it's a demonstration of "electrostatic propulsion and the repulsion of like charge." That should do it.

When you rub a balloon on someone's hair the balloon picks up electrons, leaving it negatively charged and the hair positively charged. Because opposite charges attract, bringing the balloon near the hair causes the hair to stand up.

When you bring a charged balloon near pieces of paper, the paper isn't charged so you might expect nothing to happen. But the paper is attracted to the balloon. Why? The negative charge on the balloon repels the electrons in the paper, making them on average farther from the balloon's charge than are the positive charges in the paper. Because electrical forces decrease in strength with distance, the attraction between the negatives and positives is stronger than the repulsion between the negatives and negatives. This leads to an overall attraction. The paper is said to have an induced charge. This explanation applies to a charged balloon sticking to a wall and a charged balloon attracting other uncharged objects.

Additional Info

Static Electricity Zingers
Rinse out a 1-liter soda bottle and let it completely air dry. Fill the bottle with 1/4 cup of Styrofoam beads and seal the bottle with a cap. Rub the bottle on your head (or better yet, your friend's head) or on a wool sweater. Observe the effects of static electricity on the beads. Simply run your hand over the plastic bottle and build up a static charge. Watch the static beads inside jump from side to side to stay away from your finger.

Charge a balloon and bring it close to a ping-pong ball. The ball will begin to move very slowly toward the balloon. Move the balloon around and the ball will follow.

Fill a balloon with small Styrofoam balls and then inflate the balloon. Be careful to blow and not inhale -- otherwise you'll get a mouthful of tiny Styrofoam balls! Tie off the balloon and rub it on your head. Observe the movement of static balls in the balloon as the static charge jumps from place to place.

Charge a balloon and then blow soap bubbles. Bring the balloon close to the bubbles and they rise rapidly toward the balloon. Now you can tease the bubble around the room with the balloon.