Paul Doherty, Julie Yu
The Exploratorium Teacher Institute
May 1, 2008
Presented for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching
Paul Doherty is a physicist and the Associate Director of the Exploratorium Teacher Institute. http://www.exploratorium.edu/ti/
The Exploratorium Teacher Institute creates content-rich workshops for high school science teachers.
Paul's part of this workshop is available online at http://www.exo.net/~pauld (Alternately search for Paul Doherty on Google, try "I'm feeling lucky".)
Electrophorus Charge a styrofoam plate with a negative net charge by rubbing it with wool. Then use this plate to charge an aluminum pie plate positively by electrical induction. The charged metal plate can be used to generate sparks which can be seen, heard and felt.
Neon Lamps type Ne2 are available from All Spectrum Electronics for about $0.25 each
Flying Tinsel 2 The positively charged metal pie plate can be used to charge a loop of tinsel (aluminized mylar) with a positive charge. The two positively charged objects will repel each other with a force greater than the gravitational force on the tinsel. So the pie plate can be used to fly the tinsel.
Flying Tinsel An optional version of Flying tinsel that uses a negatively charged PVC rod.
Tape Electroscope When two pieces of Scotch magic tape are stuck together and pulled apart one will acquire a positive charge and one a negative charge.
These tapes can be used to determine the charge on another object.
Julie Yu is a Chemist and a Postdoc at the Exploratorium
Julie's part of this workshop is available on her website: http://www.exo.net/~jyu/
Penny Battery Light an LED for five cents.
Aluminum Air Battery Power a motor with a home-made battery.
The Exploratorium is a museum of science art and human perception.
The Exploratorium website has thousands of pages of information useful to science and mathematics teachers and their students. http://www.exploratorium.edu