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What causes this to happen?
The piece of paper is greatly enlarged so
you can see what happens.
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When you rub a plastic ruler through your hair, some of the electrons
are transferred from your hair to the ruler. The ruler has a net (overall)
negative charge. (Sorry, the - charges are a little hard to see.)
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When the ruler is brought near the neutral bit of paper, the electrons
in it are pushed toward the bottom of the paper.(remember why?)
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The positive charges remain, and so the top surface of the paper
becomes positively charged.
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This creates an attracting electric field between the ruler and the
piece of paper. Since the paper is very light, it is attracted towards
the ruler.
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This is called charging by induction.
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