Lucas rubs a plastic ruler on his sweater. he waves the ruler above a pile of shredded

The effect is due to static electricity when Lucas rubbed plastic ruler on the sweater he caused the ruler to become negatively charged due to rubbing creating a negative charge that is carried by electrons so when he waved above pieces of paper positive charges present in the atoms of paper became attracted to negatively charged ruler.

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Explanation:

The structure of an amino acid allows it to act as both an acid and a base. An amino acid has this ability because at a certain value (different for each amino acid) nearly all the amino acid molecules exist as zwitter-ions. If acid is added to a solution containing the zwitter-ion, the carboxylate group captures a hydrogen () ion, and the amino acid becomes positively charged. If base is added, ion removal of the ion from the amino group of the zwitter-ion produces a negatively charged amino acid. In both circumstances, the amino acid acts to maintain the pH of the system—that is, to remove the added acid or base from solution.