Katie rubs a balloon against her hair. Electrons from her hair travel to the balloon, giving the balloon a negative charge and her hair a positive charge.

Question

Image courtesy of NASA

When the negatively charged balloon is brought near the strands of Katie's hair, they move to get closer to the balloon, without the balloon actually touching them. This shows that
A.
electric attraction is a force that can only act on contact.
B.
particles in the air must be pulling Katie's hair toward the balloon.
C.
electric attraction is a force that can act at a distance.
D.
Katie's hair would move in this way with or without the balloo

Answer 1

The correct answer is:

C. electric attraction is a force that can act at a distance.

This describes the phenomenon where the negatively charged balloon exerts an attractive force on the positively charged strands of Katie's hair without the two objects needing to be in direct contact.