The phenomena of free-fall weightlessness have been demonstrated to students for many years in a
number of different ways. The essential basis of all these demonstrations is the fact that in
free-falling, gravitationally accelerated systems, the weight force and weight-related forces (for
example, friction and hydrostatic forces) disappear. In this article, an original electrostatic
demonstration of weightlessness is presented. A charged balloon fixed at the opening of a plastic
container cannot lift a light styrofoam sphere sitting on the bottom when the container is at rest.
However, while the system is in free-fall, the sphere becomes weightless and the charged balloon is
able to lift it electrostatically.