Yes, yes, I seem to have an affinity towards bending stuff, specifically wet stuff. Last time I bent a laser beam using water, and this time I’m going to magically bend water using a plastic comb.

 

Science magic! Okay, well, it’s not quite magic, it’s science magic, which means it has (as always) a perfectly good explanation to it. But - can you guess it?

 

(Read more and watch the video...)

 

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who's the hottie with the comb?

who's the hottie with the comb?

 

Are you implying some sort of thermal effect here?

 

 

 

 

 

 

a wonder, how water brings charges

Ok, the positive charged part of the water's attracted to the comb and moves toward it. Yet if the water's (negatively charged) electrons repel away from the comb, why doesn't the right side of the water bend away from the comb?

 

Instead, the right side of the water also bends towards the comb following along with its left side.

 

 

 

But I'd have assumed the water to bend in opposing directions, as shown below.

 

(note: image originally by mooypoo; it's been altered by me only for illustrative purposes here)

the positive and negative bits of water are attached to each other pretty firmly. even if you discount the force provided by surface tension.

 

they charges in water aren't really distinct, they are both in the same molecule(the hydrogens are slightly positively charged and the oxygen is slightly negatively charged)

 

the reason it all goes over to the one side is that the force of attraction between the negative comb and the hydrogen is greater than the repulsion of the comb nad the oxygen because the oxygen is slightly furter away.