What you need:
Two Styrofoam plates, A towel
What to do:
1. Rub the base of one of the plates with the towel and keep it on the table, base side up.
2. Now, place the second Styrofoam plate on top of the first face up.
What happens:
The second plate slides off the first on its own! If you try to hold the second plate above the first, the second plate will push towards your hand in its effort to move away from the first plate.
Magic? Levitation? Not really
Why?
It’s static electricity! ‘Static means stationary. When you rub two objects against each other (like the plate and the towel), they develop stationary electrical charges. To understand why this happens, we have to go to the microscopic level. Everything in our world is made up of tiny particles called ‘atoms.
These atoms are, in turn, made up of even smaller particles known as electrons, protons and neutrons. The protons and neutrons remain inside the atom but the electrons like to use any excuse to jump in and out of the atom. When you rub two objects together, the electrons from one object jump to the other. This exchange of electrons is what is termed as electrical charge. Electrical charges attract or repel each other depending on their kind. If two objects have same electrical charges, these charges repel each other. Opposite charges, on the other hand, attract. In case of the Styrofoam plates, there is a repelling charge between the two that makes the plates refuse to stay together!
Picture Credit : Google
