FUN PHYSICS in a boring day

Eric Vazquez

Usually everyone is used to seeing a light bulb turn on through electricity from the wall. Stop wondering what is in that wall and make your own electricity. I’ve learned in my physics class that electrons are relatively free to jump from one atom to the next, and they're attracted to some materials more than others. In this funny story there will be three characters. Through the story I’m about to tell, we can see that people can be electric conductors as well as metal and other things. The characters in the story are called Mr. Balloon, Mr. Shinny and you, the one who is reading. And yes you don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about don’t act like your dumb because you are not. Enough of that lets begin the story. Once upon a time there you were sitting at home storming ideas because there was no class for a week and you were bored. You like your physics class a lot and it was interesting for you so you wanted to do an experiment. Suddenly something hovering over you stooped on top of your head and said, “hey you hair looks beautiful”. You asked it what are you called, it answered “I’m Mr. Balloon and I want to rub myself with your hair”. You got really nervous but you still answered yes. He started to do what he desired with your hair, RUB. While he was doing that something rolled closed to your feet it was a florescent light. It started to talk and said, “hello my name is Mr. Shinny, and can you hold me?” You answered with no hesitation, “why of course.” While Mr. Balloon was rubbing on your head, you almost dropped Mr. Shinny because it tickled your head. You were laughing so hard you took the balloon with your other hand. All of the sudden the lights the power went out, you got scared and put your hands together for no apparent reason. As you put your new friends together you noticed that Mr. Shinny, the fluorescent light, turned on. It was so amazing that it seemed impossible but that is how it is done. In this story you became you are the main reason this happened. You acted as a conductor because when you rub a balloon on your hair, electrons from your hair jump over to the balloon and stay there. The inside of a fluorescent tube is coated with a white material made up of phosphors. Inside the tube there is also mercury vapor. When electrons collide with the mercury vapor, they cause the vapor to emit ultraviolet light, which hits the phosphors and the tube lights up. Bringing a negatively charged balloon near a fluorescent tube stirs up the electrons in the mercury vapor. This produces an electrical current, which excites the mercury atoms. The excited mercury atoms emit ultraviolet light and cause the phosphors to glow. The end!