Gauss's Law Demo - Faraday's Icebucket



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 Code Number :   5B20.10  

Disclaimer:

Reprinted by permission of Dick Berg, University of Maryland, for use on this website.

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Condition :   Good  
Principle :   Gauss's Law  
Area of Study :  Electricity & Magnetism   
Equipment :   Van de Graaff generator with Discharging Rod, Electroscope, Copper bucket, Charge transfer rod.

  
Procedure :   Place the copper ice bucket beside the Van de Graaff generator and charge. Using a small charging rod rub the inside of the sphere and then touch the electroscope. No charge should be shown. Then touch the outside of the sphere and then the electroscope. A large charge will be observed. This demo works best in the winter months as the charge will leak off the sphere fairly rapidly in high humidity.

A cool variation is to use two ice buckets.  Charge one bucket and then connect the outside surface of this bucket to the outside surface of the other bucket.  Each buckets will now have 1/2 the initial charge.  Now disconnect and recharge one of the buckets again.  This time connect the inside of the charged bucket to the outside of the uncharged bucket.  All of the charge from the first bucket will be transferred to the second bucket.  

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   References

Martha Lietz, "A Potential Gauss's Law Lab", TPT, Vol. 38, # 4, Apr. 2000, p. 220.

Christopher A. Brueningsen, "Tinkering with Gauss's Law", TPT, Vol. 32, # 1, Jan. 1994, p. 12.

Colin Terry, "Magnetic Fields in a Slinky," TPT, Vol. 32, # 6, Nov. 1994, p. 328.

Zvi Geller and Esther Bango, "Does Electrostatic Shielding Work Both Ways?", TPT, Vol. 32, # 1, Jan. 1994, p. 20.

Ludwik Kowalski, "Feynman Revisited", TPT, Vol. 32, # 3, Mar. 1994, p. 133.

P.K. Aravid, "A Quicker Proof", TPT, Vol. 32, # 6, Sept. 1994, p. 328.

William R. Gregg,  "Three Inexpensive High - Voltage Electricity Demonstrations,"  TPT, Vol.  30, # 8, p. 400, (Oct. 1992).

Ludwik Kowalski, "About Electrostatic Shielding", TPT, Vol. 27, # 5, May 1989, p. 366.

R. D. Edge, "Electrostatics With Soft-Drink Cans", TPT, Vol. 22, # 6, Sept. 1984, p. 396 - 398.

 

Ea-7:  Freier and Anderson, A Demonstration Handbook for Physics.

 

E-115:  "Faraday Ice Pail,"  DICK and RAE Physics Demo Notebook.

 



Mail Questions and Comments to:  Dale Stille