Plastic spoon
Course salt
Ground black pepper
Piece of wool fabric (or another that will
help cause static electricity)
Piece of paper
*Optional~~ Rice Crispie cereal
~~Pour
a bit of salt on paper or table
~~Pour
a bit of pepper with the salt
~~Mix
together
~~Ask
the children to separate the pepper and the salt with the spoon
Can they do it?
Ask them how can it be done?
After discussing how they could separate the pepper and the salt
~~Take
the spoon and rub vigorously on the piece of fabric
~~Hold
it about 1 inch above the salt/pepper pile (do not let the spoon touch)
~~The
pepper should jump up to the spoon and stick to it
What’s happening?
Rubbing the
spoon with the piece of wool causes the spoon to become negatively charged (static electricity) which attracts the pepper.
The pepper is lighter than the salt.
~~Lower
the spoon closer to the salt
Does the salt
jump onto the spoon?
Because the salt is heavier than the pepper the charged spoon needs to be closer to be strong enough to
pick up the salt.
~~Try
to push the salt away with the spoon
To do this the
spoon needs to be close to the salt but not so close that it sticks to the spoon.
You may have
to try a few times placing the spoon in different ways to make it work. Start off with the salt in a small pile then try to
push some off of it.
