Electrostatic Force
Static electricity often happens when you rub
things together. If you rub a balloon against your
1.
jumper 20 or 30 times, you'll find the balloon sticks
to you. This happens because rubbing the balloon
gives it an electric charge (a small amount of
electricity). The charge makes it stick to your jumper
like a magnet because your jumper gains an
opposite electric charge. So your jumper and the
balloon attract one another like the opposite ends of
two magnets.
Read the following sections in your textbook:
7.5.1 “Inside atoms” (pg.261)
7.5.2 “Positive or negative?” (pg. 261)
2. Go to http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/build-an-atom and begin the simulation for an ‘Atom’.
Click the “+” sign on the “Net Charge” and “Mass Number” tabs.
Close the “Element” tab and uncheck “Neutral/Ion”.
Add 6 protons, 6 neutrons and 6 electrons to your atom builder to make a neutral Carbon atom.
Investigate what happens to the net charge and the mass number when you add/remove
electrons, protons and neutrons.
3. Answer the questions below in this document. Refer back to the textbook section and simulation when
answering the questions.
a) Identify which two sub-atomic particles of an atom carry electric charge.
Proton and electron.
b) Identify which type of electric charge each of these particles carries.
Proton is positive and electron is negative.
c) Which types of particles increase the mass of the atom? Where are they found inside the atom?
Protons and neutrons which are found in the nucleus of the atom.
d) Complete the following:
Usually atoms are uncharged or neutral, because they contain an equal number of protons and
electrons. When an atom loses electrons, it has more protons than electrons and becomes positively
charged. When an atom gains electrons it has more electrons than protons and becomes negatively
charged. Any material that has equal numbers of positive and negative charges is also said to be
neutral or uncharged. A object made of billions and billions of atoms can become charged by the
addition or removal of electrons from the atoms that make it up, since the nuclei of atoms cannot
move easily from one place to another.
WORD BANK – can use words more than once
charges negatively atoms
neutral gains move
electrons protons positively
4. Read the following sections in your textbook:
7.5.3 “Getting charged” – including By friction and By contact with a charged object (pg. 262)
7.5.6 “The electric field” – including But it wasn’t charged! (pg. 264-265)
5. Go to http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/balloons and begin the simulation
Make sure that “show all charges” is checked.
Can you make the balloon stick to the sweater?
Explore what makes it stick weakly versus strongly?
Can you get the balloons to repel one another?
Can you get the balloon to stick to the wall – what do you notice about the charges in the wall
when this happens?
6. Answer the questions below in the document. Refer back to the textbook section and simulation when
answering the questions.
a) Just like a balloon and a woollen jumper, when you rub a plastic ruler with a woollen cloth, the plastic
ruler becomes negatively charged.
i. Describe what happens to the atoms in the cloth and ruler to cause this change.
ii. Complete the following sentence:
As the ruler becomes negatively charged, the cloth becomes _____________ charged because it
has more _____________ than electrons.
b) Complete each of the following sentences by using the words ‘attract’ and ‘repel’.
i. Two positively charged objects would be expected to _________ each other.
ii. Two negatively charged objects would be expected to __________ each other.
iii. A positively charged object would be expected to __________ a negatively charged object.
c) Using the diagram below:
i. Describe the charge (positive/negative/neutral) of the pen and paper.
ii. Use the atomic model to explain why the pen and paper have these charges.
d) Explain, with the aid of a diagram, how it is possible for a neutral object to be attracted to a charged
object.
e) What sort of force is the electrostatic force?
f) Two balloons are hanging on threads next to each other, but not touching. They begin to move away
from each other. If one of the balloons is positively charged, identify the charge of the other balloon.
g) Work out from the following list of observations whether balloons A, B, C, D and E are positively or
negatively charged.
Balloon E is positively charged.
Balloon B repels balloon D.
Balloon D is attracted to balloon E.
Balloon C repels balloon A.
Balloon A is attracted to balloon B.
Balloon Charge
A
B
C
D
E Positive
7. Read the following sections in your textbook:
7.5.4 “When lightning strikes” (pg. 264)
7.5.5 “When getting out of a car is a hazard” and “When cleaning makes things dusty” (pg. 264)
7.5.7 “Standing still” and “Charge and discharge” (pg. 265-266)
Make sure you understand the diagrams
8. Go to http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/travoltage and explore the following:
How can you make the biggest charge build up?
What causes the charges to flow/be released?
Why don’t the charges leak out of John’s body when his hand is far away from the doorknob?
Do the charges try to spread out on John’s body? Why?
9. Answer the questions below in this document. Refer back to the textbook section and simulation when
answering the questions.
a) Define static electricity.
b) What is the release of built-up charge called?
c) Name some everyday situations in which you can see static electricity.
d) Describe how static electricity can be useful.
10. Watch the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-0gNl5f4BU
a) Using diagrams explain how lightning forms.
b) Why is standing beneath a tree a bad idea in a lightning storm?
