PIRA 5B20.10 Gauss's Law: Faraday Ice Pail with an Electroscope
Photo Shows the Demonstration Apparatus Used by the University
of Texas at Austin
Set Up Instructions / Notes:
- This demostration includes a Wimshurst machine, two discharge spheres and a couple of electroscopes.
- A metal pail is attached to the top of one electroscope.
- Demo Staff: This demo requires the use of our longest wooden table.
- Charge one of discharge spheres to one of the ball end electrodes of the Wimshurt machine.
- Now, touch the charged sphere into the inner surface of the pail on the first electroscope.
- You may need to repeat this process more than once to fully charge the pail.
***** Part 2 *****
- Use the second discharge sphere to attempt to remove charge from the center of the pail, while taking care not to touch the top edges of the pail.
- Then touch the second discharge sphere to the second electroscope, which is uncharged at this point.
- Finally, transfer charge from the outside of the pail to the second electroscope.
- Decrease the spacing between the plates and observe the transfer of electric charge from the electroscope to the large parallel plate capacitor.
- This final step may need to be repeated more than once to fully charge the second electroscope.
Last Update 02/08 - University of Texas at Austin Physics Dept.
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