How Do You Make Pepper Jump Onto a Straw? Frugal Friday.

Lightning. Combs. Balloons. How do you make pepper jump onto a straw?

Lightning

If you pour salt and pepper onto a plate, how do you separate them?

The pepper is lighter than the salt, so you could blow the pepper off the plate.

But, salt is pretty light, too. So, chances are you’d blow a lot of salt off the plate, too.

Here’s another suggestion.

Introduce static electricity to separate salt and pepper.

Directions

You will need:

A straw
A plate
Salt
Pepper
Wool or a head of hair.

Put the salt and pepper on a plate.
Rub the wool over the straw about 40 times.
When I tried this experiment with a ball of yarn and the sleeve of a fleece jacket, it did not work. Perhaps this was because they were polyester, not wool.
What did work, however, was just rubbing the straw on my hair.
Hold the tip of the straw near the salt and pepper on the plate.

What To Expect

Some of the pepper will jump onto the straw.

Some of the pepper will fly to the edges of the plate.

Click here to see where we got the inspiration for this trick, from almostunschoolers.com, 30-Second Science.

How Else Can You See the Effects of Static Electricity?

Rub a balloon on your hair, then stick it to a wall.

Comb your hair several times. Then, hold the comb over small pieces of tissue paper and watch them move.

Walk over carpet by rubbing your sneakers on the floor. If you lightly touch someone, it will give you and them a small static electricity shock.

Comb your hair several times, then hold the comb near a thin stream of running water. The stream of water will bend toward the comb.

Click here to see these experiments described on ehow.com.

What Is Happening?

Rubbing the straw over wool or your hair gives it an electrical charge that attracts the pepper.

The most common way we see static electricity in nature is lightning, an electrical charge jumping from the clouds to the ground.

Click here to watch this experiment showing static electricity with pepper and a balloon, from videojug.com.

Click here for a history of the discovery of static electricity and the difference between static and regular electricity

Did you learn the balloon trick when you were a child?

How old were you?

Who taught you?

When did you find out the connection with lightning?

To you and the magical world you can show your grandchildren.

Click here to get these Frugal Friday posts in your Reader. We feature fun things to do with your grandchildren, especially science and math activities for kids..

Carol Covin, “Granny-Guru”

Author, “Who Gets to Name Grandma? The Wisdom of Mothers and Grandmothers”

http://newgrandmas.com