Electrostatic Motor

MATERIALS:

· Film case

· Thumbtacks (9 pieces)

· Nail or peg

· Aluminum foil

· Metal paper clip ( 2 pcs)

· Cellophane tape

· Styrofoam Board

· Polyvinyl chloride pipe (PVC, small size)

· Felt pad

PROCEDURE:

テキストボックス: Static electricity is the build up of electric charges in the surface of the object (Wikipedia.com). One way of producing static electricity is by rubbing. When you rub the felt pad on the PVC pipe, you create a static electricity and a negatively charge object. When you hold it near the paper clip, the charge is transferred by aluminum foil to the thumbtacks creating a repulsive force (aluminum foil and thumbtacks are both negative) which make the motor rotate. On the other hand, your finger on the other paper clip serves as the ground.

Taking it further

1. Ask the student on how they can make the motor (film case) rotate faster and rotate for a long time.

2. Ask the student to use other material than PVC.

1. Prick a thumbtack on the outside bottom center of the film case as shown in the photo.

2. Make eight (8) marks around the film case 2 cm from its mouth. The markings should be at the same distance from each other. Push the remaining thumbtacks on the marks as shown.

3. Separate the loops of the paper clip by pulling smaller loop outward until it is right angle from the bigger loop.

4. Cut the aluminum foil 5 cm long and 2 cm wide and fold it in the center horizontally so you will have 5 cm x 1 cm. Make two pieces of this.

5. Tape the aluminum foil in the big loop part of the paper clip as shown in the photo.

6. Get the Styrofoam board and push the nail in the middle of it. Cover the nail with the film case as shown in the photo. Make sure that the tip of the thumbtack above the film case touches the head of the nail so that it will turn freely if you rotate it.

7. Tape the paper clip with aluminum foil on the board at the distance so that only 2mm of the foil is only touching the thumbtacks in the body of the film case. See the photo.

8.Get the PVC and rub it many times with felt pad.

9. After rubbing, place the PVC near one of the paper clip at the same time touch the other paper clip with your finger. Wait for a second or two and you can see the film case rotating!

Fold

テキストボックス: EXPERIMENT LISTS PHYSICS Balancing a Dragonfly Does Air Takes Up Space? Improvised Battery (Option 1) Improvised Battery (Option 2) Improvised Battery (Option 3) Tornado in the Bottle Diver Surface Tension and Air Pressure Aluminum Wrap Railway Light to Sound Magnetic field in 3D Simple Kaleidoscope Art in Polarizer Simple Spectroscope Electrostatic Motor Paper Earphone CHEMISTRY Vegetable/Fruit Charcoal Red Cabbage Extract (Identifying Acidity of a Liquid) Alkalinity of a Liquid Crayon Making Hand Printing using Soap Testing Raindrop Acidity using Red Sweet Potato Powder Magic! (Water doesn’t fall?) BIOLOGY 1. Leaves Puzzle ACTIVITIES Fossil Hunting Gold Sieving Smelting Steel Observing Classes Attending Trainings