For the past few days in tech, we’ve been learning about atoms. Atoms are submicroscopic particles that make up everything. Atoms are made up of neutrons, protons, and electrons. We did an experiment that shows how electrons are attracted to protons. The materials I used were PVC pipes, wool cloth, and a glass jar. Inside the glass jar were two pieces of aluminum foil attached to a metal hook, and on top of the jar was a metal antenna.

In this experiment, I rubbed the wool cloth and the PVC pipe together. When I was doing that, I heard something that sounded like electricity, and that sound was actually static electricity. Once I finished doing rubbing them together, I moved the PVC pipe until it was touching the metal antenna. Inside the jar, the two pieces of aluminum foil moved away from each other.

Electrons are negatives, and negatives repel other negatives, which is why the two pieces of foil moved away from each other. While I was rubbing the wool cloth and the PVC pipe, the wool’s electrons got transferred to the pipe, and when the pipe touched the antenna, the electrons traveled down to the foil. Since all the electrons traveled down to the foil, they moved apart because a negative and a negative don’t attract. This experiment was really fun and I learned so much from it.