5A10.10 - Charge conservation [two buckets]
- Description
Wool and the short, yellow PVC pipe are a good combination: put the wool in one pot and stir/rub the PVC pipe against the wool. Then remove the PVC pipe from the pot and transfer it to the other pot.
One of the electroscopes in the photographs suffers from static friction. Gently tap it to release the needle and you will see the needle deflecting.
- Equipment
- Two big buckets
- Two identical electroscopes
- 3 pieces of wood to isolate the system from the cart and the grounding metal with the buckets
- Styrofoam to isolate the buckets further
- PVC pipe [small or big]
- Materials [fleece/wool/polyester]
- How to assemble and operate
- 1. Assemble the experiment in the same way as in the photo. Make sure to correctly connect the cables and grounding. Make sure the buckets hold no charge prior to the experiment.
- 2. The two items of clothing, e.g., fleece and wool sweater, should be placed in close contact in one of the pots. Next, each pot is fully discharged by a cable/person connected to grounding. One item of clothing is then removed and placed in the other empty pot. The electroscopes measure the charge developed as a result of this transfer; they should register the same magnitude of charge if charge is conserved.
- 3. Another way to perform the experiment is to manually charge the material with a PVC pipe. Then the charged material should be put inside a bucket. The electroscope
