light a light bulb with a balloon

light a light bulb with a balloon 

you need:

hard rubber comb or balloon
a darken room
fluorescent light bulb ( not an incandescent bulb )

SAFETY NOTE:

DO NOT USE ELECTRICITY FROM A WALL OUTLET FOR THIS EXPERIMENT.

Handle the glass light bulb with care to avoid breakage .
the bulb can be wrapped in sticky, transparent tape to reduce
 the change of injury if it does break.

what to do:

1. take the light and comb into the dark room .
2. Charge the comb on your hair or sweater. Make sure to build up
a lot of charge for this experiment.
3. Touch the charged part of the comb to the light bulb and watch
very carefully. You should be able to see small sparks. Experiment
 with touching different parts of the bulb.

What happened:

When the charged comb touched the bulb< electrons moved from it
to the bulb, causing the small sparks of light inside. In normal operation,
the electrons to light the bulb come from the electrical power lines
through a wire in the end the tube. (Fluorescent and incandescent light
bulbs will be discussed in a future issue).