Who said you needed to be a wizard or a witch to perform levitation magic? All you need is some science.
What you need:
A thin plastic bag
A cotton towel
A PVC pipe
What to do:
1. Rub the PVC pipe with the towel for at least 30 seconds.
2. Next, rub the plastic bag with the towel for 30 seconds.
3. Now, toss the bag into the air and hold the pipe right under it. Move the pipe around slowly.
What happens:
The plastic bag moves with the motion of the pipe. It does not descend towards the pipe.
Why?
The answer is ‘static electricity’! Static means stationary. When you rub two objects against each other (like the pipe and the towel and the bag 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.
The bag and the pipe seem to have similar charges on them. So the bag is repelled and it tries to stay away from the pipe which means you can use the pipe to hold it suspended in the air!
Picture Credit : Google
