Science with balloons and pepper

Do you know that balloons can attract pepper and make it jump off the plate? That is what we found out in science today.

We sprinkled some pepper onto a plate. One of the group rubbed the balloon on their hair. We then put the balloon close to the pepper. The pepper leapt up and stuck to the balloon.

So what is happening? When you rub the balloon on your hair the friction caused by the hair and the balloon rubbing against each other causes the electrons from your hair to transfer to the balloon. This gives the ballon a negative charge. When you hold the balloon over the pepper, the pepper sticks to the balloon because the pepper has protons and a positive charge. Just like magnets - opposites attract!