Attractive balloon

Feel like a waterbender!

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

Warn­ing! Only un­der adult su­per­vi­sion.

Equip­ment

  • sy­ringe;
  • wa­ter;
  • bal­loon.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Fill a mea­sur­ing sy­ringe with wa­ter and sus­pend it above a bowl. Rub a bal­loon on your hair and pull the plunger out of the sy­ringe – the wa­ter will be­gin to pour out in a thin stream. By bring­ing the bal­loon to the jet, you can change the path of the wa­ter!

Process de­scrip­tion

When you rub the bal­loon against your hair, elec­trons are trans­ferred to the sur­face of the bal­loon, giv­ing it a neg­a­tive charge. The elec­trons in the jet of wa­ter are dis­placed away from the bal­loon, while the pro­tons, con­verse­ly, are at­tract­ed to it. The strength of any elec­tri­cal in­ter­ac­tion is in­verse­ly re­lat­ed to the dis­tance be­tween the charged par­ti­cles. There­fore, the re­dis­tri­bu­tion of charges leads to the at­trac­tion of the jet to the bal­loon.

Find sci­ence in­spi­ra­tion with a Physics sub­scrip­tion!

Try it