Hi all,

Does anyone have an idea how I can go about this? Or maybe ways of quantifying/measuring the charge?

Thanks,

Victor

 

Suspend it from an insulating thread and measure how far from vertical it hangs in a field, or how far it is repelled from another, similar ball.

 

Thanks for the reply wayneh.

Can you please explain to me how that can work? I have a general idea but in my head I am thinking that there would need to be a really big charge on the ball so that it would sway in the field. And how strong of a magnet (or other tool) I should use to get that field.

 

I am wondering if I can fit the string aparatues inside of two (homemade) parallel plates to make a pseudo capacitor. However I am not sure how large a gap can be left, and how large of a battery I would need to connect to each plate to generate a significant electric field to move that ball.

 

I suggest explaining what you really hope to accomplish and why, since this will help the clever folks here suggest innovative ways to get it done.

 

...I would need to connect to each plate to generate a significant electric field to move that ball.

I would certainly do the experiment on paper first. The physics of this are well known, so you should be able to accurately predict the expected deflection as a function of thread length and volts per meter of the applied field. A magnetic field would also work but then you'd need a gauss meter to quantitate the field strength.

 

Yes indeed wayneh.

 

Why did you start another thread? You already had this one: http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/showthread.php?t=84309

 

I posted it there first, but then noticed this forum under "Projects" which I thought might be more appropriate.

 

I posted it there first, but then noticed this forum under "Projects" which I thought might be more appropriate.

Ah, that makes sense. Perhaps the moderators could merge the threads into just one, in the forum of your choice. They have a tool for that

Matt