Static Electricity Demonstration: Bending Flowing Water

(updated 21 November 2022)

Notice that after charging a comb with static electricity, you can cause a stream of water to bend. This would be a good phenomenon to demonstrate.

This lesson will answer those questions.

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Initial questions

Initial questions include:

• Why does water bend?
• Can I make it bend more?
• Can I make it bend the other direction?
• What is the best type of comb to use?

1Why does water bend?

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2Can I make it bend more?

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3Can I make it bend the other direction?

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4What is the best type of comb to use?

Possible factors

What are possible factors in bending water are:

• Type of comb used
• Times combed through hair
• Pressure of water
• Distance from stream

Test procedure

You can bend a stream of water with a comb or other items that is charged with static electricity. The procedure to do this is:

1. Turn on the faucet so that the water runs slowly but just runs smoothly without breaking up.
2. Create static electricity on a non-conductor. You can use a plastic comb to comb your hair, or you can rub a plastic rod with some wool..
3. Place the charged object near the running stream of water.

The stream of water should bend. Can you explain why?

Other experiments with bending water

• Try bending water with different charged items.
• Try bending other liquids, such as cooking oil
• Try turning the water so slow that it breaks up. What happens? Why?
• Try turning the faucet so the water runs faster. What happens? Why?
• Try two combs in different positions.
• Try different sources of static electricity.

Draw conclusions on your experiments.

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Go with the flow

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Resources and references

Websites

Experiments Resources