Visualizing Electric Fields Using Rubbed Balloons as the High-Voltage Source

• Autores: Francisco Vera, Francisco Antonio Horta Rangel, Rodrigo Rivera, Manuel Ortiz
• Localización: The Physics Teacher, ISSN 0031-921X, Vol. 62, Nº. 2, 2024, págs. 93-95
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Developing a conceptual understanding of electrostatic interactions, electric fields, and Coulomb’s law is very important in undergraduate physics courses, and visualizing the electric field produced by charged electrodes offers a unique opportunity for students to initiate a basic understanding of electromagnetism. The experiment of visualizing electric field lines using seeds immersed in oil is typically used at universities as a lecture demonstration that needs big electrostatic machines to generate the necessary electric fields. Here, we present a simple experimental setup for the visualization of electric field lines that could be used at a massive scale in schools and universities. Our setup uses short filaments of paintbrush hairs immersed in sunflower cooking oil inside a plastic petri dish, and produces beautiful patterns of electric fields due to charged electrodes. Instead of using high-voltage generators to charge the electrodes, the high voltage is produced by charged balloons resting on isolated metallic pans wired to the electrodes. The main advantages of our setup are that it can be easily built using low-cost and easy-to-find materials, the high voltage is produced by inoffensive balloons, and the filamentary patterns are well defined.