14-year-old Jocelyn Yong was given an assignment to teach a class about electrons. This is her teacher's script....
Good day, Students!
Today, I am going to tell you some interesting Science facts about electrostatic c charges.
Here is a simple way for you to remember the word, ”electrostatic”. From the word “electro”, you can know that it is related to electricity. While, “static” means something that does not move.
Thus, the term 'electrostatic charges' simply means the study of electric charges that are not moving. Static electricity also occurs when two different materials are rubbed together and the electrons are transferred from one object to the other.
Let me explain more about electrons. Electrons are the negatively- charged subatomic particles that orbit around the nucleus of an atom. The nucleus is made up of protons (positively-charged) and neutrons (neutral). Of all three particles, only electrons can be transferred between two objects.
A simple experiment can be carried out to prove the existence of electrostatic charges. Firstly, rub the polythene rod with wool cloth. Then, bring the rod closer to some small pieces of paper.
So, can you guess what the result is?
The pieces of paper will be attracted to the polythene rod!
This is because the polythene rod becomes negatively charged when rubbed with the wool cloth. Electrons are transferred from the wool cloth to the polythene rod. This causes the pieces of paper that are positively charged to be attracted to the negatively charged polythene rod.
You can imagine that this is similar to a magnet. Materials are attracted to the opposite charges and repelled with the same charges.
Besides, an electroscope is an equipment with gold leaf that is used to detect the presence of electric charges and to measure the magnitude of the charges. However, it cannot help us to determine whether the object is positively-charged or negatively- charged.
On the other hand, there are many examples of electrostatic charges in our daily lives.
The dust on the TV screen is one of the common ones. The negatively-charged dust particles are attracted to the positively-charged TV screen, which causes the TV screen to be dusty. You may use a microfiber cloth, which is an anti-electrostatic material to clean the TV screen, so that it does not become dusty so quickly.
So, children, I am sure that now you have a better understanding about what electrostatic charges are and the examples of electrostatic charges in our daily lives.
Isn’t it a fantastic world of Science?
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