An extention!

After briefly presenting my experiment in class, my teacher suggested that i further extend my experiement since I still had time to do so. Instead of just testing the distance factor, I could also test on the other factors that affect static electricity, changing my experiment from its original research question of does the distance of between the stream of water and the balloon affect the degree of ;bend; of the stream of water to do the variables that cause the water to 'bend' affect the degree of ;bend; of the stream of water?
Not only that, I will also be changing my generator of electricity from the hair to a woolen jacket.

Factors that affect static electricity : Distance, time and charges

What about surface contact? Does surface contact too affect the degree of ;bend; of the water? What is difference in results when using a balloon and a nylon comb as the generator of static electricity?

Background research:

Inverse Square Law, General

Any point source which spreads its influence equally in all directions without a limit to its range will obey the inverse square law. This comes from strictly geometrical considerations. The intensity of the influence at any given radius r is the source strength divided by the area of the sphere. Being strictly geometric in its origin, the inverse square law applies to diverse phenomena.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/forces/isq.html

According to the inverse square law, the balloon will send out an electrical forcefield, spreading the negative electrons equally in all directions, meaning that it is actually exerting its unfluence on the stream of water from all directions. By making use of this law, I can prove that the surface contact does not affect the degree of 'bend' of the water as the shape would not matter as long as the forcefield of charges sent out is of the same size. (charging of balloon must be constant for both) 


I already found out that distance does affect the degree of 'bend' in the stream of water so how about time and charges? I decided to conduct more experiments to find the result.

Charges :

Electric Field Intensity

It was stated that the electric field concept arose in an effort to explain action-at-a-distance forces. All charged objects create an electric field that extends outward into the space that surrounds it. The charge alters that space, causing any other charged object that enters the space to be affected by this field. The strength of the electric field is dependent upon how charged the object creating the field is. 

Electric field strength is a vector quantity; it has both magnitude and direction. The magnitude of the electric field strength is defined in terms of how it is measured. Let's suppose that an electric charge can be denoted by the symbol Q. This electric charge creates an electric field; since Q is the source of the electric field, we will refer to it as the source charge. The strength of the source charge's electric field could be measured by any other charge placed somewhere in its surroundings. The charge that is used to measure the electric field strength is referred to as a test charge since it is used to test the field strength. The test charge has a quantity of charge denoted by the symbol q. When placed within the electric field, the test charge will experience an electric force - either attractive or repulsive. As is usually the case, this force will be denoted by the symbol F. The magnitude of the electric field is simply defined as the force per charge on the test charge.

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/estatics/u8l4b.cfm

From the background research conducted, I found out that the charges does indeed affect the degree of 'bend' of the stream of water. The relationship is something like that :

Legend:

->     Affects

Charge -> Electric forcefield strength -> degree of 'bend' of water

Research question: Does the amount of charges affecet the degree of ;bend; of the water? 

Hypothesis : The higher the charges on the balloon, the larger the degree of 'bend' of the water.

Materials : balloon, balloon pump, metronome, woolen jacket, ruler, online protractor tool, scale, distance scale, ruler, camera distance scale 

Variables : 

Independent : Degree of 'bend' of water

Dependent : number of times balloon is rubbed against woolen jacket

Constant : speed of metronome,  Size of the stream of water, size of the balloon,  material of the balloon, amount of air pumped into the balloon, distance between the balloon and the stream of water, 

Procedure :

1. Make a scale and place it behind the water faucet (Ensure that the stream of water is flowing straight along the line drawn on the scale)

2. Place a small distance scale on top of the tap to roughly estimate the distance 

3. Use the balloon pump to pump up the balloon (about 10 pumps)

4. Rub the balloon against the woolen jacket (about 25 times)

5. Use a metronome to ensure constant speed (150 BPM) 

6. On the water faucet

7. Place the balloon near the faucet (about 1cm)

8. Take a video of the process

9. Repeat steps 3-8 again by rubbing the balloon against the woolen jacket for 50, 75 and 100 times respectively

10. Repeat the experiment again for another two times

11. Use the online protractor tool to measure the degree of the 'bend' in the stream of water

12. Tabulate the results for easy reference