Hair-Raising Science!

Thanks to the science staff at Kichuimen Academy, we were able to use a Van De Graaff Generator this morning.  (Miss Mullin rehearsed last night!)  We used a range of accessories (and three brave volunteers) to demonstrate the basic properties of static electric charge.  These properties are:

• Like charges repel
• Static charge tends to reside preferentially on points
• Static charge is generated by frictional contact between certain pairs of insulating materials

We could see and hear the static electricity at work!  Our volunteers described it as “like a breeze going through your body.”

Mums and Dads – do you remember doing this at school?

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