Scientific Phenomenon

My son was in the first grade, so we wanted his first science project to be a simple one. We wanted him to learn something that he didn’t know before, and to get a feel for the scientific method His old sister had participated the year before, so he was more than willing to give it a go.

We checked out a pile of books and eventually settled upon an experiment with static electricity. The project required propping a plane of glass between two books and putting little bits of paper or cork underneath the glass. When you rubbed the glass with a silk cloth, the particles beneath the glass would jump around. My son, the scientist, was delighted to see this in action. We couldn’t wait until Daddy came home to show him. He practiced rubbing the glass all afternoon.

Dad came home from work and we prepared to see the scientific discovery of the century. With all the fervor of Alladin and his magic lamp, my son rubbed the pane of glass in front of him. NOTHING happened. My husband rubbed…I rubbed…NOTHING happened. We tried remnants of fabric: wool, flannel, and others. NOTHING happened. Apparently, the particles had been so charged up during the afternoon’s practice, the became over-charged! (Much like my credit cards!)

My husband doesn’t give up easily, though. He whipped out his handkerchief, and began to rub it on the glass. Lo and behold, the particles beneath the glass began moving! He beamed with pride, having saved the day for his song.

Conscientious Mother, declared a fresh, clean hanky would be sent in to school for the science fair presentation. Just for safety’s sake, we brought out several clean hankies to test their effectiveness. We repeated the rubbing process with each hanky. Not one of them worked! Only the dirty hanky from my husband’s pocket could coax the particles to dance under the glass. He howled with laughter over this scientific phenomenon.

Mother was reluctant to allow this particular revelation to be made public. She voted to scrap the whole project entirely. ALAS, yet another stroke of genius from father, was the suggestion that an ordinary balloon might be substituted for the cloth, and would produce the desired result. We inflated several balloons, rubbed them in our hair, and then pressed them to the glass. It worked every time, without fail.

My son, the scientist, won the blue ribbon for that project. The kids at school had a wonderful time rubbing the balloons in their hair and then watching the particles dance under the glass. (As a matter of fact, my son’s hair was sticking straight out for several days, in honor of this scientific process.)

Ah, the wonders of modern science….