One other suggestion since you seem to have a deadline... I just rubbed an empty plastic Coke bottle, which is made of vinyl or some other plastic, against my jeans pants and the bottle became charged. I also rubbed it against my sweather and it became charged by that too. All kinds of things work.

Those who watched this video were all worried bout their projects like me 😊..

I have lots of problems with humidity in my town, like you say charging an object even with a HV power supply charge does not stay a lot.

Regarding the what happens with a positive charge, you're right. Regarding the humidity, the issue is with the charging and not the electroscope at all. So I guess the electroscope can be in a humid room as long as you rubbed the two objects together in a dry room, or charged the object in some way that didn't have a problem with humidity, like an electronic high voltage power supply. Glad to hear you like the videos! Thanks for letting me know.

ty ..now thats going to be my physics project

Wow! I'm so happy to hear that. I remember participating in science fairs myself. Congradulations!

In this case it's not the size that's important since the area of the disk and blinds that faces the electroscope terminal are the same, although the disk has grooves in it so it actually does have more area. The material is also matters. They're both vinyl but they may also have coatings on them since they're different colors. If you look at my triboelectric effect video (see link in the description below the video) you'll see some materials become more charged than others too.

Nice and clear simple and quick to make. 2 notes If the leaves touch the glass they transfer a charge you can see this at the end of the video the last few frames the leaf magically jumps to the jar wall and back in to equalize charge as it bleeds off the curly end into the air. This is why the scope appear less sensitive as you use it in the video. You can ground the leaves by touching the probe with your hand. you may need to ground the glass where it touched which is why on some versions you see rods between the leaves and the sides. and with very high voltages sharp corners/edges/points bleed voltage which is why on most of those old machines everything is tube and ball looking

Cool! I'm always delighted to hear when it works out!

Thank you sooooo much this helped me alot as i needed this for a physics project

Glad to hear it worked. Thanks for letting me know what fixed it.

I really like your videos! Thanks for making them.

Wonderful presentation. Thank you very much. I just made one to show our children... We appreciate your time and effort!

Check the foil leafs in the jar to make sure they can move freely. It's also possible the problem is not with the electroscope but with the charged objects. If the air is too humid then it's harder to charge them. Maybe the air was drier the first time you did it. Also, try many different objects. Also, if I use a drinking glass as the object, it works only the first time and then I have to clean it thoroughly with soap and hot water because my hands put grease on it, stopping the charging.

Thanks again! I glad your enjoying these videos.

Oh! Cool idea! I just tried it and it works. The leafs separate. I also did a test using the electroscope and induction to see if the screen is positively or negatively charged. The screen is positively charged. I sense a video in the making :). Thanks!

oh man, I had to do a project in the school about this, and this video was perfect to show me how to build an elctroscope and how does it work. It helped me a lot!! you have won a subscriber!! :D (sorry for the bad English, I'm catalan xd)

Thanks for the feedback folks! Making it helpful was what I was after. This is definately encouraging me to make a complete Wimshurst machine explanation video I've been planning on.

Thanks for clarifying. Sounds simple enough, I'll give it a try. -Steve

@5MrPurple It's optional. It's there only to hold the wire in place as it goes through the cover. You can use tape, glue, a tight fit, or whatever you can come up with in order to support the wire. Heck, the wire can even go through the hole in the cover and then be bent flat sitting on top of the cover, in which case you don't need to support it at all. Maybe just tape it flat to the cover so it doesn't move around.

Yes, as long as it is lightweight and can move freely. The force causing the foils to separate isn't usually very strong, depending on your charged object. There are other metal foils at hobby and craft stores (brass, copper, steel), some candy wrappers, aluminum from soda cans. The foil must be electrically conductive metal and make sure the place where the foils contact the hook that they hang from is electrically conductive - no coating of any kind.

thank you for making this video! im planning to make this for a science assignment at school and i was wondering if there was anything else i could use for the coper wire and also is there any object you could suggest to use to charge the electroscope? thanks

Yay! It works! :) Thanks, I'll keep the videos coming.

You're welcome! I'm glad I could help. Thanks!

Yay! It almost always is the charging that's the problem. Super glad to hear you're project worked out.

thanks its so help full for me nice

Thank you very much for this video,it was my homework to make an electroscope and I am really thankful 👌👌👌

@xfyizlas I'm glad to hear they helped. Thanks for letting me know. Alphas looks pretty cool. I'll have to check it out and watch my voice-double in action. :)

@ThePunchClock You're welcome, my friend.

@SquishyRhinoes A paperclip would work. Any bare, uninsulated wire, will work.

@Saskachewan I just undo the tape. It's easy to put back on and I never have to open it up anyway. But using a twisting lid is a good idea too. Either works fine unless you use a tape that works only once or is difficult to take off. As for the effect of the strong field, just don't put the terminal too close to the charged object. The electric field strength weakens with distance. If there's a reason you can't do that then use heavier or larger foil. More mass means less effect from the field.

School science project. Learning tool for learning about electrostatics. Useful tool. I do a lot of work with high voltages and I use this to detect if something is charged and even to test whether something is positively or negatively charged.

You're welcome. I love hearing when it's used in real life, so thanks for letting me know.

@msdomy1998 You're welcome! Croatia seems to be the place for electrostatics! Another video should be ready in a day or two. Thanks for the thumbs up.

I'm really thankful for choosing me as your beta tester for KZfaq recommendations

@XGalaxiX Yes, you can use something other than a copper cable. Aluminium foil in the shape of a pencil should work. The foil leafs do have to be hanging fairly loosely so they can separate easily.

@vestprend1993 The ends of my wire were sharp so I put a little round bit of solder on them using a soldering iron. I could just have easily sanded the ends round. I probably didn't need to do this anyway, just a habit from working with high voltage a lot, so I don't think that's your problem. Can you give more details of how yours is made.

@swordswordswords The vinyl is non-electrically conductive so the charge won't conduct away to your hand in that direction, regardless of your skin conductivity. Good suggestion re the dryer.

Youre very welcome! I am glad it worked. Thanks you for letting me know!

Thanks! I'm glad it helped.

I agree. A lot of people have used it for science projects and got it working just fine. For other charged objects you can rub a plastic coke bottle or rubber balloon against your hair and bring the bottle or balloon near the electroscope terminal.

Thanks! It's probably good because this is a tool I actually use in my experiments.

Thanks bro! :D I had to make this for school and this video is really everything I need! Your awesome! :D

You're welcome! Glad I could help!

@akosijabo06 Yes, you can.

@semih007gmailcom Done already :). See my triboelectric effect video, there's a link to it at the end of this video and in the description.

I've never heard it put quite that way! Thanks!

Glad to hear it. Have fun!

Yes! It finally worked, thank you so much for this video! My problem was just really the charged object. :) Do you have any suggestions for other objects that I could use ? I am currently just rubbing plastic cover on my hair because unfortunately I don't have any vinyl fabric around.

wow,I'm impressed 😄😯😙

Your ideas are appreciable

Great! Glad I could help.

doing this for the nuclear science merit badge for boy scouts!

Awesome phenomena.

I am a student from Greece. Great job! I'll try to make this!...

@RimstarOrg Thanks sooo much!!! It was too humid. You were a big help!!!!

cant it be of other steel instead of copper

Just to anyone watching it in the future: you get a huge charge if you rub the vinyl against your hair.

Easily and quickly to make.good work man.👌🤘

Thanks so much I'm glad you helped me after all these years !

Could you also use cardboard for the lid

hey man please can you list all the ingrediants again

Thanks! I'm glad so many people like it.

@IRmShaDe You're welcome. It is a surprisingly useful tool. I used it again just last week.

Positive charges are the ones that makes the foils to repel Just kidding

is this gd for 4 spirits of family that have passed away

@shanism88 I used the thin one. The thick one may be okay too but you want the foil to be as light as possible so that even if the repulsion force is weak, it'll still work.

This project is very useful .Thanks

who's watching this video in 2022 😂

Thanks sir u really made the concept of gold leaf electroscope easier for me 😊😊😊

Do you mean something like a drinking glass that's turned upside down and under the glass is the tiny paper balanced on the needle and the needle held vertical by the eraser? If so, how do you interact with the paper, or does the paper simply react when you bring a charged object close?

good work amazing this video help me a lot thanks for this video

I've been trying to come up with a way but haven't been able to yet. I started with using F=ma and measuring acceleration as a starting point but the acceleration of the electrons happens in the initial instant and is not measurable. Another approach might be to work out the electric field but there seem to be too many unknowns and no way to measure. If I come up with something I'll let you know, but don't wait for it. I don't know if/when I can.

Wow! You're welcome. And well done!

@DoctorKaJ Glad to hear it. You're welcome!

Thank you sir You had explained very nicely

@ComboSmasher Instulated means there's a coating on the wire the doesn't conduct electricity. Example: a plastic coating on a wire prevents electrons from going onto the wire. The only parts of the wire that really have to be uninsulated are where the aluminium foil leaves touch the wire. It's optional, but it's handy if the terminal part of the wire (where I made a spiral) is also uninsulated. That's good if you want to touch it with something to put or take off electrons.

Thanks a lot. I need this for a AP Science class and I need to make one. Seems fairly easy. Thanks again! :D

Very good explanation. Keep it up.

Thankyou for sharing this idea😀...worked

Ohh iam so excited thanks for your simple expirement

@mariaxblah Do you mean the piece of grey material I used before the vinyl record? That was a piece of vinyl window blinds, the kinds of window blinds that roll up. It was leftovers from some that I'd installed on my windows.

@amarben123 I'm not sure I understand your question? The wire I used was 14 gauge (AWG). I took it from some household electrical wire that I had lying around, the kind used in our walls here in Canada. Thicker wire does exist. If you have a Home Depot nearby, they would also have 12 gauge (smaller number means thicker wire in the American Wire Gauge system) and probably all the way to 8 gauge. If this doesn't answer your question, please ask again.

Not everything can be easily charged, but if it can be charged, you can test it. In this video I'm using the triboelectric effect to charge things and there's a particular list of what can be rubbed with what and how those things will become charged. See my video "Triboelectric effect/series or triboelectricity" for more on this. There's a link to it at the end of the video and in the description below the video. The size of the jar doesn't matter as long as there's room for the foils to move.

@meliknida You don't have to. I used it because it was an easy way to hold the wire in place.

Exactly, RimstarOrg. You can use a marker or highlighter to color half of the strip (or color both halves, red/white, red/black, whatever). Place a charged object near to the glass without touching it and watch the paper react. The trick is to poke the center of the strip onto the needle in a balanced way. Careful as too strong a charge can push the paper off the needle. Also glue the eraser to the bottom of the glass to make it portable. Although I have not tested this portable version myself.

Thanks alot! This really helped me at the last moment when i couldnt figure out what to make for my physics assignment.

that helped me alot for my physics project thanks!

It's very help full to me thanks Thank a lot

Glad to hear it. Thanks.

Thanks. I checked out your channel. Nice work re your lifter.

@uberme65 They don't have to be exactly the same size. At least one of them has to be able to move easily since the repelling force between them is very weak. They also have to be light weight. Are you having trouble making it work?

Man you are awesome!! I love your vids!!!

Thanku sir u explained each and every thing on detail

thanks you are a good teacher,hats off

Glad to hear it! And I was once a kid with a helpful father too, I know how it goes!

omg this is a life saver because i have extra credit in science and i really need it and she told us to make this and write a paragraph of how it works and this video is perfectttt!!!! omg thank you so much!! :)

This video helps a lot to my project thanks

@ImAPainTer80 Thanks. I'm glad you like them.

nice video and helpful