Re: Static charge

Richard Tobin <richard@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> wrote:

Suppose I acquire a static electric charge by, say, rubbing a ballon
against my clothes.  Is there some way, using only everyday household
objects, that I can determine whether the charge I have is negative or
positive?
 
-- Richard
 

Since rubbing a balloon against anything I can think of results in a
negative charge on the balloon, the question is kinda moot.

However, if you hang a charged balloon from a string and place a randomly
charged object near it, the balloon will be either repeled or attracted
to the object depending on the object's polarity.

If you want to know how to prove a balloon is negative, it would take a
few simple electronic components to build something to do that, but
unless you are an electronic hobbiest, you would be unlikely to have
such laying about the house.