Topic-Electric Charge

Subject-Physics

Target Audience- 6th Standard

(Illustrator as Voice Over)

(Screen showing a Girl in a room in front of mirror combing her hair)

This is Lily. She loves her hair. So much so that she combs it 5 times a day. Her
life is simple. But her life would not remain the same when she discovers this.
(Screen showing her comb attracting tiny pieces of paper)

Voice Over Continues:

She thinks that it’s supernatural or some kind of sorcery that her normal comb
can now attract pieces of papers. She now doubts whether it is made up of
magnet. (Thought bubble shows Comb as magnet). But magnet only attracts
iron! She bursts her head to find an answer but with no success. (Screen shows
Lily pulling her hair in confusion)

(Illustrator comes back into scene)

So, what we just saw wasn’t magic. It was based on a concept of science called
Electric Charge. So, what is an electric charge?

An electric charge is the quantity of electricity held in an object. There are two
types of electric charges.

Positive & Negative! However, there are many objects around us where the
positive and negative charges are in equal quantity. ( Screen shows animated
comb with equal partitioned positive and negative charges). We call those
objects as “Electrically Neutral”

Let’s go back to Lily’s room. (Screen shows Lily combing her hair using the
comb).

Voiceover continues:

Was Lily’s comb electrically charged or neutral? Look at the comb when it was
just lying on the table. Let’s use it on the pieces of paper. (Screen shows Lily
touching the pieces of paper using her comb). Does it attract the pieces now?
No. It doesn’t. It means, the comb is electrically neutral.
Now, let Lily comb her hair up and down and use it again on the pieces of
paper. Does it attract the pieces now? Yes. It does. It means it is now
electrically charged.

So what happened there? When the comb was neutral, it had equal number of
positive and negative charges. Hence it didn’t have the ability to exert a force
and attract the pieces of paper. But after Lily rubbed it on her dry hair, it gained
an electric charge ( Screen shows the comb gaining electric charge). Once it got
electrically charged, it gained the ability to exert a force on the pieces of paper
and attract them. This charge is called Static Electricity. Don’t fret; it won’t
shock you to death.

Now, here’s a question for you? Can you lift the pieces of paper using a metal
comb?

(Screen shows Lily nodding her head in affirmative)

No. Lily’s wrong. A metallic comb won’t attract the pieces of paper like the
plastic comb. Why’s that so?

In case of plastic comb, as the plastic comb is not a good conductor of

electricity it doesn’t allow the electricity to flow through it to the earth as a
result, chare is built up in the plastic comb and enables it to attract the pieces of
paper. However, in case of Metallic comb which is a good conductor of
electricity, it allows the electric charge to get through it to the earth and doesn’t
allow the charges to build up and hence doesn’t attract the pieces.