Activity:
What is Induction?
Teach your child how to awe his friends by showing him how to easily separate salt from pepper! Have him put the "opposites attract" principle to the test, and soon he’ll see how easy it is to separate the two mixed spices. In this experiment he’ll build a flow of electricity by rubbing wool against a plastic spoon. When the negatively charged spoon is lowered, it charges the spices through induction and the pepper grains will jump to the spoon.
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What You Need:
- Plastic spoon
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground pepper
- Wool sock
What You Do:
- Ask your child to mix the salt and pepper together on a clean, dry table.
- Encourage him rub the spoon against the wool sock.
- Have your child mix the salt and pepper on a smooth, dry surface like the table. Encourage him to rub the spoon firmly and quickly against the wool sock.
- Tell him to slowly lower the spoon toward the mixture of spices.
- Lower the spoon so that it’s 1" - 2" from the surface of the table. Have him pause and watch the pepper jump toward the spoon's surface, one grain at a time.
- Explain that the pepper jumps because it’s lighter than the salt. Careful though, if he moves too fast with the spoon, both spices will jump together.
- Try the experiment again, but this time move the spoon a bit lower and see what happens.
