Question

Both the sweater and the balloons start with equal amounts of positive and negative charge. When you charge one of the balloons by rubbing it, is the whole balloon charged or just where the sweater was in contact with the balloon? Since the simulation doesn’t fully encompass the reality of physics, you can’t explore this idea much further -- but can you think of an experiment you could do in real life to test your answer to this question?

Answer 1

We rub a part of ballon with sweater. The rubbed part of the balloon now has a negative charge. Objects made of rubber, such as the balloon, are electrical insulators, meaning that they resist electric charges flowing through them. This is why only part of the balloon may have a negative charge (where the wool rubbed it) and the rest may remain neutral.

This can be proved with experiment when we rub the ballon from one side and try to stick it to the wall from the other side, it doesn't stick. While, when we try to stick the ballon to the wall from the side where it is rubbed it does stick. Reason being rubber is an insulator and the charge induced does move through the ballon.