hello, can you please tell me how to make an electroscope
Answers
Answer:
Make an Electroscope
To better understand electricity, start with understanding electrostatics which is the study of electric charges at rest.
Conductors and Insulators
Materials are generally considered to be either conductors or insulators, based on their ability to conduct or block electricity.
Metals such as copper and iron for example are classified as conductors, because some of the electrons present in these materials are free to move around the entire material. These are materials which transmit electricity; however some conductors transmit electricity better than others. Copper and silver are some of the best conductors e.g. metals, carbon and water (Note that if the water is a good conductor only if it contains some impurity because pure water is not a good conductor).
On the other hand, the electrons present in a piece of glass or a chunk of wood for example are bound to nearby atoms; this means that these electrons will not be able to move freely inside the material. For this reason, materials such as glass and wood are classified as insulators.
It is possible to detect and measure the electric charge on a material by using an electroscope, shown below:
Making a Basic Electroscope:
1 → Gather your materials before you begin. Having everything on hand will make it easier to do the experiment. You'll need a styrofoam cup, pencil or pen, plastic straw, tape, aluminum pie pan, string or thread, ruler, and aluminum foil.
2 → Use a sharp pencil to poke 2 holes on opposite sides of a styrofoam cup. Make the holes close to the bottom of the cup. They should be big enough for a straw to fit through them.
3 → Insert a plastic straw through the holes. Any kind of plastic drinking straw will work. It just needs to be long enough to go through both holes in the cup. Try to center the straw so that there is an equal length on either side of the cup.
4 → Turn the cup upside-down and tape it to the bottom of an aluminum pie pan. Tape it near the edge of the pan so 1 end of the straw is hanging off the side of the pan.
- Make sure you use an aluminum pan or your electroscope won’t work.
5 → Cut an 8 inch (20 cm) piece of thread and tie 3 knots at one end. Use a ruler to measure the thread before you cut it. Don't worry if the thread gets a little bit shorter when you tie the knots. The knots should be close together but not touching.
6 → Make an aluminum foil ball around the knots at the end of the thread. To make the ball, tear off a small piece of aluminum foil and wrap it around all 3 knots. You want the foil ball to be about the size of a marble.
- Wrap the aluminum foil tightly around the knots so the ball doesn’t fall off.
7 → Tape the loose end of the thread to the end of the straw. You want to tape it to the end of the straw that’s hanging off the aluminum pan. When you’re done, the aluminum foil ball should hang down right next to the edge of the pan.
8 → Test your pith ball electroscope. To test out your electroscope, you need to create some static electricity. You can do that by rubbing an inflated balloon and a styrofoam plate together. Then, put the charged plate on a non-metal table and set your electroscope on top of it. You should see the aluminum foil ball move away from the aluminum pan.
- Try testing different objects to see how well they hold a charge. The more the ball moves away from the pan, the more charged the object is.
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