September 11, 2009
This wonderful photograph was published on MSNBC.com this morning. It is a photograph of four-year old Ella Bromsted’s hair, charged with static electricity as she gets off a slide at Robert Morris Elementary School in Batavia, N.Y.
What is static electricity?
Static electricity occurs when an electrical charge builds up on the surface of an object. And, those electrical charges stay on the surface of the object until it comes into contact with another object. Then, the electricity is discharged in a burst of energy - what is sometimes called a "shock." Have you ever walked across a carpet on a cold, dry winter day? Then when you touch your friend’s hand you both jump because you’ve given her a shock! What actually happened was that the friction between your shoes and the carpet caused static electricity to build up on the surface of your body, and the electricity was discharged in a burst of energy when you touched her.
Have you ever heard the phrase "opposites attract"? Some people use that phrase when they are talking about love, but it is also true for electricity. Opposite charges attract each other (a positive charge moves toward a negative charge), and charges that are the same repel each other (two positives push away from each other).
Knowing that, can you guess why Ella’s hair looks like this?
This electric mohawk happened because when Ella’s hair came into contact with the plastic slide, each hair picked up a positive charge. The hair is literally standing up on her head because the individual hairs all have the same charge, and they are repelling each other.
I guess you could say that Ella had a shocking first day of school!
We’d love to hear about your first day back at school. You can write to me at simon@seymoursimon.com
Posted by: Seymour Simon
