Question

Brush your hair with a plastic comb. Bring the comb close to a small piece of paper. Move a fridge magnet near the comb and then the paper. Do these objects exert forces on one another? I performed the experiment, why did I observe nothing between the magnet and comb, nor magnet and paper? Theoretically what could've happen? Thank you.

Answer 1

When we brush our hair with plastic comb then due to friction charges are produced on the comb.This comb when taken close to a paper it induces the charge in the paper so that it is attracted towards the comb. So there is an electrical force between comb and paper.

However, the magnet or field due to magnet applies force only to a moving charge, the magnetic force on a stationary charge is zero. Since the charges produced in the comb and paper are static charges the magnetic force on the them is zero.