Leyden jar (please help!)

[deleted-75983]

Link to my project:https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary

I am stuck at the measuring part. I have the charging cycles down. I'm not touching the jar while I push it so I don't know. Does moisture affect the experiment?

I'm using a Styrofoam plate instead of acrylic sheet, which works fine and I rub it in a duration of 30 seconds.I made my Leyden jar out of a prescribed clear pill bottle, a long nail, and foil. I'm using a small piece of aluminum sheet and a plastic tub sort of container. It's small.
I tried to be descriptive as possible but y'know. THANK YOU! Please help!

[kgudger]

Hello and welcome to the forums.

I assume from your comment that you are not getting a spark when you move the soap tray close to the aluminum sheet? And you're concerned that moisture in the air is discharging your Leyden jar?

Did you check to make sure that your Leyden jar will store charge? (Charging the Leyden Jar, Checkpoint). If it worked at the Checkpoint, you should be able to get the "Measuring the Charge" part to work. I guess that if you have a very humid atmosphere, there could be leakage from the Leyden jar. You would want to quickly take your measurements after charging the Leyden jar.

Let us know more details and we'll try and help.

Keith

[deleted-75983]

Hello and welcome to the forums.

I assume from your comment that you are not getting a spark when you move the soap tray close to the aluminum sheet? And you're concerned that moisture in the air is discharging your Leyden jar?

Did you check to make sure that your Leyden jar will store charge? (Charging the Leyden Jar, Checkpoint). If it worked at the Checkpoint, you should be able to get the "Measuring the Charge" part to work. I guess that if you have a very humid atmosphere, there could be leakage from the Leyden jar. You would want to quickly take your measurements after charging the Leyden jar.

Let us know more details and we'll try and help.

Keith

I already did several trials with the checkpoint and it's working then. There is a spark but the nail will be touching the aluminum sheet to get that spark. The thing is, I tweaked the project a little to be about how much charge is in a Leyden jar each hour. There's not really moisture in the air, but I noticed the medicine bottle is leaking a little bit. Does rust in the water affect the project either?

[donnahardy2]

Hi Filinofang,

This sounds like a really great project. Here are some suggestions that might help solve the problem.

1. The leak in the medicine bottle might be causing the problem. Can you find a different bottle to use?
2. Organic molecules such as fingerprints will interfere with static electricity. Try cleaning all of the surfaces of your Leyden jar with 70% isopropanol or other similar solvent and avoid touching the device with your bare fingers.
3. It does not take much moisture in the air to interfere with static electricity. You may need to wait for a really cold, dry, windy day to do your experiment.

Good luck! Please post again if the problem is not solved.

Donna Hardy