Introduction: In this experiment, through the use of the PASCO Basic Electrostatics system, observations and notes were gathered on static al electrical charge, electrical charges, grounding, etc. This experiment consisted of 4 parts, however part 3 and part of part 4 was unable to be fully completed due to technical difficulties. In the first part of the experiment two charging wands of different colour were used to create a charge and were placed in various places in Faraday’s Pail to see the various effects they would have. In the second part of the experiment conductive spheres were used in addition to all the components from the first part of the experiment to see the effect the charge would have on the grounded and non-grounded sphere. Various changes in distance helped gather more information and data on the effects of distance related to charge. In the last part of the experiment a visualization of the electric field was done on the computer in a Phet Electric Field Hockey Simulation. A curved path was created and simulated and then printed out to show completion.
Data Sheet:
See data attached at the end of the report.
Data Analysis:
In this particular experiment, no calculations were performed as all the reading and recording was done by hand therefore no further equations were needed. The data was read directly from the electrometer.
Discussion:
In the first part we can conclude that when the white wand was inside the pail the wand had a negative charge while the blue wand inside the pail had a positive one. We can further deduce that these charges should total to equal zero therefore resulting in an equal magnitude. Unfortunately the negative charge seemed to be slightly higher than the positive charge therefore resulting in an overall more negative charge. In the second part of the experiment it was concluded that as the distance from the charge