Today I am here to relieve you from your tiring hunt of simple and easy Halloween science experiments that reveals ‘Static Electricity.
Sounds fun and exciting, isn’t it? It is exciting to learn science. Let us begin!
Halloween Balloon Static Electricity Experiment is a great STEM activity that makes children laugh and effectively offers science. For children, it might look like a magic trick. Still, it is entirely a science trick of making Halloween ghosts dance without any physical touch.
Here is a shortlist of items that reveal Halloween Science in just minutes…
1) Latex Balloons
2) Craft Paper sheets of different colors
3) Different colored markers
4) Scissors
5) And your hair
It is a concise list of supplies, right? Hope you already have all the items on hand and are ready to quickly freak out by making dancing ghosts.
Follow the Simple and Easy Instructions Mentioned Below to Make Dancing Halloween Ghosts…
Step-1: The first step is to pick a latex balloon and inflate it using your mouth or balloon pumping machine. And give it a tight knot at its mouth part to prevent the flow of air out of it. Then, keep it aside.
Step-2: In the second step, take a large-sized craft paper and ask your child to draw different shapes of Halloween creatures like ghost shapes, skull shapes, etc. You can choose any color and shape that matches the Halloween theme of your choice.
Step-3: As a third step, cut the outlines of the shapes drawn by the children using scissors. And also, ask them to give facial and bodily features using marker pens such that we get to see perfect Halloween creatures. Now, it is time to scatter them on the experiment table.
Step-4: The fourth step is the final step, i.e., ask your child to pick the inflated balloon and rub it against their hair for a minute.
Then, immediately bring the balloon over the Halloween shapes and observe the magical science trick of jumping ghosts. But make sure you are holding the balloon just a few inches away from the paper crafts; otherwise, we cannot see the effects of static electricity.
Results: As soon as the balloon rubbed against the hair and brought it over, the paper ghosts started jumping towards the balloon.
Then, slowly try to increase the distance between the balloon and paper ghosts to make the ghosts stand up. But do not let the balloon touch paper crafts throughout the experiment.
Tips
1)If you maintain a reasonable charge on the surface of the balloon for a long time, then it can have control over balancing the ghosts even from many inches away.
2) Also, try to glue the very tip of the paper ghosts to the experiment table; this makes the jumping process easy.
3) Winter times are the best times to perform this experiment and see good results! Of course, this experiment works very well during any time of the year.
4) Increase the rubbing stretch if you fail to jump the paper crafts in the first or second attempt.
Such an easy and wonderful science experiment that teaches static electricity in a fun and educational way isn’t it! Cool!
Now let us learn how the paper ghosts dance themselves without touching anything…
It is entirely because of science, and here is the science that made our science activity successful!
Well, every single object in this world has free electrons around it. And these electrons turn positive or positive depending on the surroundings.
In the same way as and our experiment, the balloon collects free and invisible electrons after rubbing against the hair. And these electrons are transferred from the hair and remain negatively charged. Since these electrons are negatively charged, they can attract objects that possess positively charged electrons. In our case, the positively charged objects are nothing but papercrafts or ghosts!
These paper crafts are very light and possess positively charged electrons. They easily get attracted when the balloon comes closer. And hence, they start jumping towards the balloon and sometimes stand up without touching anything. This fantastic science trick solely happens because of the strong, attractive force between the balloon’s negative and positively charged electrons and the papercrafts. Such a strong force that even defeats the gravitational power and makes the ghosts dance amazingly!
If you want to extend the experiment, you can try out this experiment on different things around your home like running water, toothpicks, salt, and pepper, etc.
This classic science experiment is especially for Halloween-themed parties and events! If you are searching more for Halloween science, just browse our website and find many other science experiments.
