What is Static Electricity?

When one object is rubbed against another, static electricity occurs. For example, if a balloon is rubbed against your hair, the balloon will become negatively charged as it steals the electrons from your hair while being rubbed.

Furthermore, this leaves the hair with a positive charge and the balloon with a negative charge. As we have learnt before, opposite charges are attracted to each other meaning that both objects will get attracted to each other.

Similarly, if two objects have the same charge they repel, for example if two charged polystyrene rods are placed next to each other, they will move away from each other