How to make an electroscope: instructions and necessary materials

Do you know that it is quite possible to make some entertaining physical devices at home from improvised materials? Such manufacturing is not difficult at practical physics lessons. In this article, we will talk in detail about one of these devices. How to make an electroscope with your own hands, read on.

What is an electroscope

An electroscope is a device that determines even the smallest electric charge of an object. His work is based on the repulsion of equally charged particles from each other. By their movement, we can visually judge the presence of a charge, and by the sharpness of the angle that appears between them during repulsion, calculate its value.

What you need to create a device

How to make a home electroscope? First of all, you need to prepare everything you need:

• Small strips of foil. As an alternative - pieces of papyrus paper, light paper clips without a plastic lining.
• A small piece of copper wire is 15-20 cm.
• Glass jar - flask, ordinary jar or bottle.
• A rubber cap suitable for the size or any non-conductive cap, cork to the container from the previous paragraph.

Create an electroscope

And now we will analyze in detail how to make an electroscope from a can or other glass container:

1. The first thing to do is cover or cork. Make a hole in this object with an awl, corkscrew or thick needle so that the wire can pass through it, while not tightly, but tightly.
2. If the hole turned out to be too wide, then the wire must be fixed in it with tape, tape, paper or plasticine.
3. Pull the wire. At the same time, a smaller part of it remains outside, above the lid, and a large part will be in the bank.
4. We continue to talk about how to make an electroscope. After you pulled the wire through the lid, bend the part that will be in the bulb with a hook. You can do this with your hands, or you can use a special tool - needle-nose pliers. The hook should be in the shape of the letter W.
5. The wire should fit freely in this form in the container, without touching its walls or bottom.
6. Put foil or papyrus paper on the wire hook. These elements should be placed in the lower corners of the hook, bent in the shape of W. And also should not touch the bottom of the can or bulb.
7. Now it remains to seal the container tightly with a lid. Now you can start testing your own electroscope.

Instrument Modifications

After we have figured out how to make an electroscope of the simplest design, here are a few recommendations for those who want to see their device more advanced:

1. To increase the capacity of the electroscope, take care of the upper part of the wire towering above the lid: the easiest way is to wind it with a spiral.
2. Another option for increasing capacity: put a plastic ball wrapped in foil on the upper half of the wire.
3. If you have a soldering tool at hand, then a small metal element can be soldered to the outer section of the wire.

Checking the operation of the electroscope

So we completely figured out how to make an electroscope. Let's test our invention now. Spend some simple but interesting experiments:

• Bring your hand to the top of the copper wire - the petals of the foil or papyrus paper in response to this should rise slightly in the air, repelling from each other. Now you have just proved that the human body conducts an electric charge, even if it is weak.
• Now bring an electrified object closer to the wire. The simplest option would be a plastic comb combed with hair, a balloon or a pen, worn on a woolen product. Pieces of foil or paper inside the device will be much more noticeably repelled, while lifting up and to the sides.
• Electricize the comb even more by rubbing it, for example, on a woolen jacket. The device by the movement of its elements will immediately notify you of an increase in its electric charge.

That's all we wanted to tell you about how to make an electroscope with our own hands at home or at school. Now you have a device that correctly determines the electric charge of any item - a smartphone, an accessory for clothes, dishes, stationery, small household appliances and even you and me. Its work is very simple: it is only necessary to bring the object of study close to the upper part of the electroscope.