You’ll need one teaspoon of ground pepper, one teaspoon table salt, a piece of wool or faux fur, a clear plastic ruler and a sheet of paper. Mix the salt and pepper together on the piece of paper. Rub the entire length of the plastic ruler several times with the wool or faux fur. Hold the ruler 12 inches above the paper and slowly lower it. Pepper will begin to fly up and adhere to the ruler. As you get the ruler closer to the paper, the salt will fly up and also adhere to the ruler.
For this part of the experiment, you need one teaspoon each of ground pepper and salt, a clear, plastic petri dish with a lid and a piece of wool or faux fur. Add the salt and pepper to the petri dish and put on the lid. Mix the salt and pepper by shaking the petri dish several times. Rub the top of the petri dish lid several times with the wool or faux fur. Turn the petri dish upside down for 10 seconds. Turn the petri dish right side up. The pepper adheres to the petri dish lid.
You can use static electricity to make pepper form a design. Trace the outline of a petri dish lid on paper and cut it out. Draw a simple shape in the center of the cut-out circle, such as a triangle, square or circle, and cut the shape out to make a stencil in the middle of the circle of paper. Add 1/4 teaspoon pepper to the petri dish and put on the lid. Place the stencil on top of the lid and rub only the cut out shape area several times with wool or faux fur. Turn the petri dish upside down for 10 seconds. Turn the petri dish right side up. Remove the stencil and you should see pepper adhered to the lid in the same design as your stencil.
The plastic ruler and plastic petri dish were charged with static electricity when you rubbed them with the wool or faux fur, leaving an excess of electrons. The pepper and salt received an opposite charge and were attracted to the ruler and petri dish. The pepper was attracted to the ruler and petri dish before the salt was because pepper is lighter in weight than salt. The force of gravity is greater on the salt, holding it down longer than the pepper. Since you rubbed only the cut out area of the stencil with the wool or faux fur, it was the only part of the lid that was statically charged.