How to Make Static Electricity Bend Water!

Project Overview:
Rub up some static electricity on a balloon and use it to bend a running stream of water — no touching required! It only takes a couple minutes to set up, but it's one of those experiments that looks like a magic trick even though it's just simple physics at work. NOTE: You'll need the water running the whole time, so do this near a sink.

Materials:

1. 1 balloon

2. A sink or faucet you can adjust the flow on

3. Your hair or a wool sweater

Instructions:

1. Turn the faucet on just enough to get a thin, steady stream of water going

2. Blow up your balloon and tie it off

3. Rub it against your hair (or a wool sweater) for 15-20 seconds

4. Bring the charged side of the balloon slowly toward the water stream, without touching it

5. Watch the stream bend toward the balloon

6. Move the balloon around a little and see if the water follows it

7. If the bending starts to fade, rub the balloon again and try once more

Explanation:
When you rub the balloon against your hair, you're actually pulling electrons off your hair and piling them onto the balloon, which leaves the balloon negatively charged. Water molecules are built in a way that makes them respond to charges like that, so once the balloon gets close enough, the molecules in the stream start twisting and leaning toward it. That's really all bending water is — the stream curving because the balloon's pulling on it from a distance, without the two ever touching. Move the balloon and the water keeps adjusting to follow, since it's constantly reacting to wherever that charge is sitting. Eventually the charge fades off the balloon and the effect stops working, which is why you have to rub it against your hair again to get it going a second time!