Question

On Monday while Johnny was getting ready for school, he was in the bathroom holding his comb when he got an itch on his head. Johnny used the comb to rub his itch away and when he did his hair was a mess. He turned on the faucet so there was a small stream of water flowing and as he brought the comb near the water to dampen it, he noticed that the water was pulling towards the comb. Thinking he was seeing things, he pulled the comb back and the water was flowing straight down. He again moved the comb near the stream of water and the water again was pulling towards the comb. He repeated this process many times and the water continued to move towards the comb when the comb was near the water. What do you think is happening to the stream of water flowing from the faucet? Support you claim in Question 1, by explaining why you think it is happening. Formulate your hypothesis for the problem.

Answer 1

Answer:

Check Explanation.

Explanation:

This phenomenon is due to static electricity.

When one body is rubbed against another, the surface charges on one are transferred to the other.

So, rubbing the hair with comb rubs off electrons from the surface of the comb onto the hair. Thereby making the overall charges on the comb more positive than negative. (Since every object normally has an equal amount of positive & negative charges and rubbing a particular amount of negative charges off the comb, makes the comb overall positively charged).

Now, the structure of a water molecule has two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom. The hydrogen atoms attach to two out of the six valence electrons of each Oxygen atom; leaving 4 electrons to pair off into 2 pairs that are 2 lone pairs. So, basically, each water molecule has two lone pairs of electrons.

So, it seems natural according to the teachings of static electricity that water molecules with 2 lone pairs of electrons, are attracted to a relatively positively charged comb. Hence, the water molecules naturally attract towards the positively charged comb. (Like charges repel, unlike charges attract).

Hope this Helps!!!

Answer 2

I'd say that his comb has a static electricity charge. It can either be negative, or positive. Let's just say it's positive, and the water is negatively charged. This means that it will affect the water flow when the two charges meet. I hope this helps! ~Mia