Activity # 1

Detection of Charges Using the Electroscope

Name: CABARUAN, DEMIE FLOR M. Date _______________

Course and Year: BSED-SCIENCE 2B Rating ______________

Introduction

Static electricity is the accumulation of electric charge on the surface of a material. It results from the
imbalance of electric charges which occurs when electrons are transferred to or removed from a
material. Once the material is charged, it can be used to charge another material either by conduction or
induction.

To detect the presence of an electric charge a device called an electroscope might be used. In this part
of the activity, you will explore the Electroscope Interactive Simulation to investigate the induced charge
separation and the two ways of charging.

Learning Objectives

1. To investigate how electroscope detect electric charges

2. To differentiate charging by conduction and charging by induction

Materials: glass rod, electroscope, fur, silk cloth

Data table 1. Charging by Conduction

Charge on rod Charge on electroscope Observations

(metal leaf) Describe how the metal leaf moves
When I brought the positive rod to the electroscope the
Positive Positive metal leaves move away from each other.

Positive Positive The metal leaves will move toward each other.

When I replaced the negative rod in the negative

Negative Negative electroscope the metal leaves opened.

When I replaced the negative rod in the negative

Negative Negative electroscope the metal leaves opened.
Data table 2 Charging by Induction

Procedure
Step 1. Holding the positive rod
near the electroscope
Observations
Describe how the charges and the metal leaf moves
When I brought the positive rod closer to the electroscope, its
charge accelerated and I noticed that the metal leaves opened
quickly.

The metal leaves slowly opened when I connected the positive

Step 2. Holding the positive rod rod and grounded electrode to the electroscope, and the
near the electroscope while the negative electrode moved more quickly toward the positive
electroscope is grounded electrode.

When I brought the negative rod closer to the electroscope, its

Step 3. Holding the negative rod charge accelerated and I noticed that the metal leaves opened
near the electroscope faster.

The metal leaves opened faster when I connected the negative

Step 4. Holding the negative rod rod, then the negative charge of the electroscope moves faster
near the electroscope while the to the grounded rod.
electroscope is grounded

Guide Questions:

1.How does an electroscope detect the presence of an electric charge?

- It detects charge by the movement of a test object due to the coulomb electrostatic force. The
amount of charge on an object is proportional to its voltage.
2. How will you differentiate charging by conduction from charging by induction?

- The difference between conduction and induction is that conduction is solely dependent on an
electric field, where as induction is dependent on a changing magnetic field.

3. What happened when you put the charged material near the electroscope? Why?

- If you bring a negative object close to the electroscope and the electrons in the scope will be repelled
toward the leaves balancing the charge.

4. What happened when you touched the electroscope?

- Excess electrons leave the electroscope and enter the person who touches it when they come into
contact.

Conclusions:

- We can conclude from these statistics that the operation of an electroscope is based on the
charge of induction, the atomic and internal structure of metal elements and the idea that
unlike charges attract while charges repel each other.