Physics in Balloons

Playing with balloons was a fun childhood memory, but as we get older, we discover the physics that go hand in hand with the balloons. If you rub the balloon against your hair, then stick it to the wall it will stay there for a period of time. But how? When the balloon rubs against your hair, the balloon picks up a sum of electrons which makes the balloon negatively charged. The wall is an insulator so it will not steal the electrons, but instead the negative electrons will move as far away from the balloon as possible, leaving the positive charges closest to the balloon. The rearrangement of the charges is called polarization. The opposite charges will attract one another, with allows the balloon to stick to the wall.