💧 Bending Water - Simple Static Electricity Science Experiment

Science experiments for kids don’t have to be hard; this water bending experiment is super easy to try, but allows kids to visually learn about static electricity. As kids try this static electricity experiment they will be amazed at bending water in what seems like magic, but can be explained by simple scientific principles. This bending water with a comb is perfect for pre-k, kindergarten, first grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, and 4th graders.

Science experiments for kids don't have to be hard; this bending water experiment is super easy to try, but allows kids to visually learn about static electricity. As kids try this static electricity experiment they will be amazed at bending water in what seems like magic, but can be explained by simple scientific principles. This is a cool static electricity experiments for pre-k, kindergarten, first grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, and 4th graders.

Water bending experiment

This bending water experiment is so simple try try and a great static electricity experiment. In this science experiment for kids from preschoolers, kindergartners, grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, and grade 4 students – children will bend water with static electricity

Bending water experiment

All you need for this simple science experiment is a plastic comb, a water faucet, and your hair. Using a plastic comb, comb through your dry hair ten times. If the weather is humid that day, your hair might not be dry enough. Try rubbing the comb on carpet instead.

Bending Water

Next in this water bending experiment turn on the faucet so that a narrow stream of water is flowing. Slowly, move the teeth of the comb close to the stream of water, but do not touch the water. As the comb gets closer to the water, the stream of water should start to bend toward your comb. If it doesn’t, comb through your hair 10 more times. Once you get the water to bend toward the comb, you can start to experiment.

Bending water with static electricity

Try these experiment ideas:

Adjust the flow of the water. Does this affect how much the water bends or how close the comb needs to be to the stream?
If you have a comb made of something different than plastic, does it affect the reaction of the water?
Try this with other people’s hair. Is there a difference in the outcome?

Bending water experiment explanation

The unseen force in this experiment is static electricity. Static electricity is the buildup of electrical charge on an object. When the electrically charged object comes into contact with an object with the opposite charge, the electrons flow from one object to another. This happens then you walk across a carpeted room and touch a door knob and get shocked. When the comb ran through your hair, it picked up negatively charged electrons from the hair. This caused the atoms of the comb to have a negative charge. When things are negatively charged, they attract things that have a positive charge. The stream of water had a positive charge, so it was attracted to the negatively charged comb and bent in it’s direction. Try this at home and let us know what happened.