On March 4, physics students participated in an Electrostatics Lab. The purpose of this lab was to show the properties of static electricity through a fun experiment. Students were separated into groups of four and were provided with the necessary materials to perform the experiment: a piece of fur, a plastic tube, silk, a glass rod, and an electrostatic apparatus.
Objects can gain or lose elections to acquire a static charge. The objects will retain that charge for an appreciable length of time if they are separated from a ground by a nonconductor. The three rules that generally apply are protons are locked in the nucleus and do not move, an insulator such as rubber will acquire an excess of electrons, and therefore a negative charge, when rubbed with wool or fur, and a glass rod will lose electrons, and therefore acquires a positive charge, when rubbed with silk.
Students first began with rubbing the plastic with fur and approached the suspended foil ball. They then recorded their observations on what happened. Next, they charged up the plastic again but this time let it momentarily touch the ball and recorded their observations once again.
They practiced identifying the charge on the plastic after it was rubbed with fur and the ball after it was touched with the plastic. They also determined how the ball behaved once the charged plastic approached it. Next, they classified the type of force, attractive or repulsive, which exists between objects of like charge and unlike charge.
This process was then repeated but this time with the ball positively charged. They answered the same questions and recorded their observations as they went. Finally, they charged one of the balls negatively and one positively and tested what would happen when they brought their finger close to the balls.