
Sprinkle
some salt and ground pepper onto a plate. Blow up a balloon and rub it
against your dry hair. Now slowly bring the balloon close to the salt
and pepper. The pepper will leap up and stick to the balloon.
Explanation
When you rub the balloon, it picks up electrons from your hair and becomes
negatively charged. The electric charge of the balloon attracts light
and fluffy particles like pepper. The charge pushes electrons toward the
back of each pepper particle and then attracts the front side, which now
has a positive charge. That doesn’t work as well on salt grains.
Their electrons don’t push away as easily, and the grains are heavier.









