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Electroscope

1. Students will use various materials like rubber, glass, fur and silk to create positive and negative charges and observe the forces between them using an electroscope. Rubbing rubber with fur creates negative charge on the rubber and positive charge on the fur, while rubbing glass with silk creates positive charge on the glass and negative charge on the silk. 2. The electroscope can be used to demonstrate charging by conduction and induction. Touching a charged object transfers some of its charge to the electroscope through conduction. Simply bringing a charged object near the electroscope without touching can cause its leaves to diverge through inductive charging as the charges separate within the electroscope. 3. Oppositely charged objects attract,

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Amizel Amistas
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93 views2 pages

Electroscope

1. Students will use various materials like rubber, glass, fur and silk to create positive and negative charges and observe the forces between them using an electroscope. Rubbing rubber with fur creates negative charge on the rubber and positive charge on the fur, while rubbing glass with silk creates positive charge on the glass and negative charge on the silk. 2. The electroscope can be used to demonstrate charging by conduction and induction. Touching a charged object transfers some of its charge to the electroscope through conduction. Simply bringing a charged object near the electroscope without touching can cause its leaves to diverge through inductive charging as the charges separate within the electroscope. 3. Oppositely charged objects attract,

Uploaded by

Amizel Amistas
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Group:______________________________________________________________________________

Date:_______________________________________________Score:___________________________

ELECTROSCOPE

Objectives
Determine the effect of positive and negative charges on objects.

Concept Overview

Static charge (electrons, in this case) can be physically transferred from one object to another through friction. Students will use
rubber, glass, fur and silk and improvise electroscope, to create positive and negative charges, and investigate how these
charges cause forces.
The idea that like charges repel and opposites attract will not be new to students. They will observe those concepts, as well as
how small objects (like pieces of paper) are attracted equally well to positive and negative.
Excess charge can be transferred to another object by touching (conduction). A metal object can also be inductively charged; that
is, it can have its charges separated within by merely bringing a charged object nearby, but not touching. An electroscope will be
used to demonstrate this.

Goal: Observe the forces created by charged objects.

Materials: Hard Rubber, Glass, Fur Pad, Silk Pad, Electroscope


Read this first! When you rub the rubber with the fur, the following charges result: Rubber: Negative; Fur: Positive. When you rub
the glass with the silk, the following charges result: Glass: Positive; Silk: Negative.
Note: Static electricity demonstrations work better in dry air. Dry air is a better electrical insulator than moist air. On humid days,
the experiments described here may not work.

Procedure:
Basic Attraction and Repulsion
1. Cut a two pieces of rubber, suspend one rubber with fishing line so that it is balanced horizontally and can turn around its
center. (Fishing line is preferred because it will allow the rubber to hang still without twisting.)

2. Rub the suspended rubber with the fur. Rub the glass with the silk and bring it near the suspended hang rubber. What force do
you observe? )

2.1 Inflate the balloon and rub it against your hair or fur and touch the knob using rub balloon. What force do you observe?

2.2 Use your comb and rub it against you hair and touch the knob using the rub comb. What force do you observe?

3. Rub a second rubber rod with fur. Bring it near the suspended, first rubber (hang). What force do you observe?

4. Conclusions: Like charges _____________, and opposites _____________. (Ben Franklin decided that the charge on the
rubber rod would be called “negative,” and that on the glass rod would be “positive.”)

Electroscope—Charging by Conduction and Induction


5. Rub the glass with the silk to produce a positive charge. Touch the top knob of an electroscope. What do you observe in the
electroscope leaves?
6. Explain your observation in terms of charge and force.

7. Rub the glass again, and touch the positively charged electroscope again. What happens to the leaves? Explain in terms of
charge and force.

8. Rub the rubber with fur to produce a negative charge. Touch the negatively charged rod to the positively charged
electroscope. What happens to the leaves? Explain in terms of charge and force.

9. Discharge the electroscope by touching it with your finger. Explain why the leaves now hang straight down, and where the
charge went.

10. Bring a negatively charged ___________ near (not touching) the electroscope. What happens to the leaves?

11. While holding the rubber near the knob, momentarily touch the knob with your finger. What happens?

12. Move the charged rubber away from the electroscope and observe. What happens?

Conclusion:

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