Static Electricity | Experiment 1 - Building an Electroscope: Which objects are electrically charged?
Experiment 1
Building an Electroscope: Which objects are electrically charged?
Purpose/Hypothesis
In this experiment, you will build an electroscope and use it to determine whether objects have an electric charge. An electroscope has two metal strips that hang down. When you hold a negatively charged object near the strips, the excess electrons move into the strips, causing them both to have a negative charge. Because they both have the same charge, they will repel each other and move apart. When you remove the charged object, the strips will lose their negative charge and hang down, as before.
An electroscope responds in the same way if a positively charged object is brought near the strips. The positively charged object attracts electrons from the strips, giving them both a positive charge. This time the strips move apart because they are both positively...
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