How Things Work 3-minute video · ages 4-8 · free coloring page
Why does a balloon stick to my hair when I rub it?
You rub a balloon on your head, and then you lift it up. Your hair stands up and sticks to the balloon! Why does that happen?
3 min
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Free coloring page
The scene from the video as a coloring page, plus the three-sentence answer, the experiment, and a QR code back to this page. One sheet, US Letter, black and white.
The answer in three parts
Why?
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Everything is made of tiny, tiny bits.
Your hair, the balloon, even the air. Around those tiny bits zoom even tinier things, called electrons. Most of the time, things have just the right number of electrons. Everything is even, and nothing happens.
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Rubbing makes electrons jump from your hair to the balloon.
Rub, rub, rub! More and more electrons hop over. Now the balloon has extra electrons, and your hair has lost some. Things are not even anymore.
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Extra and missing pull together. The same push apart.
So your hair reaches up for the balloon. It wants its electrons back! And every hair on your head has lost electrons, so the hairs push each other away. That is why they stand up and spread out.
For grown-ups: This is called static electricity. Static means staying still, because the electrons sit on the balloon and wait. Static works best when the air is dry, like on a cold winter day. When the air is damp, tiny bits of water carry the electrons away.
A tiny experiment
Try it!
Jumping tissue bits
You need: a balloon, a tissue, a table, and a grown-up
- Tear a tissue into tiny bits and put them on a table.
- Rub a balloon on your hair, then hold it just above the bits. They jump up to the balloon!
- Then press the balloon against a wall, and let go. Does it stay?
What happened? Rubbing moved electrons from your hair onto the balloon. That is static electricity at work!
Did you know?
Have you ever walked across a carpet in your socks, touched a doorknob, and felt a tiny zap? That was a crowd of electrons jumping all at once. It may sting for a second, but it is much too small to harm you.
Your guide in this video
I'm Zippy, a tiny electron. Today we will solve a hair-raising mystery!
Zippy is a tiny round blue electron with a yellow spark on top. Electrons like Zippy zoom around everything, even your hair!
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