Yesterday we were learning about static electricity. We put our fingertips on a Van De Graff Generator and the hair on our heads and arms started to stick up.

We had to stand on polystyrene as an insulator otherwise we’d be earthed and would get a small shock. When we touched the Van De Graff Generator, while standing on the polystyrene; we became positively charged! When we stood on the polystyrene, we became a conductor of the static electricity.

The reason our hair sticks up is because the positive charge has nowhere to go and it tries to get away from the other positive charge.

To discharge the Van De Graff generator you can touch it with a wand attached to something that’s earthed (like a tap) or you can take your hands off then touch someone else by shaking their hand and giving them a slight shock.

It was  very funny and when people looked at in the mirror  everyone was killing themselves in laughter!!!  After  the Van De Graff generator was turned off, the person who had been using it had to shake the static electricity off and wait for their hair to calm down before they stepped off the polystyrene.

Thank you for reading this post and we hope you  have learned  something  new!!!

Isla and Abigail 🙂