ELECTRICITY

I can find out about electricity using just a plastic comb. Run the comb several times through your hair, then hold it just above your hair. I will find that your hair will stand on end. By rubbing with the comb, you have given your hair a little bit of electricity, and you have also given an electric charge to your comb. These electric charges on your hair and the comb attract one another, and this is why your hair stands up. Electric charges like this are called static electricity.

I can giv many things, such as fur and plastic, an electric charge by rubbing them. Have you noticed that your shirt or blouse crackles when you take it off? That noise is made by static electricity.

When you walk across a nylon fibre carpet, your whole body picks up eletricity. Sometimes when you reach for a metal door knob afterwards, you give yourself a little electric shock! If the room is dark, you may even see sparks come from your fingers. The sparks are made as the electricity jumps through the air.

The same kind of things happens in the air during at thunderstorm. Static electricity builds up in the thunderclouds. Then suddenly the electricity sparks down to the ground and we see a flash of lightning. It can do a lot of damge, even knock down trees and buildings and set things on fire.