Where there is Charge, there can be Sparks!

[epiclouieman]

Just a quick question. Where to the wire strippers come into play? Wire strippers is a little vague to me.

[deleted-249560]

Part of the procedure calls for using the wire to discharge the Leyden jar. If you have insulated wire, you need to strip off some of the insulation.

Checkpoint: After performing your first charge cycle, confirm that you have correctly charged the Leyden Jar. To do this, you will have to discharge the Leyden jar. Strip a little bit of the insulator off both ends of the insulated wire, using wire strippers. Gently tape one end of the wire to the outside of the Leyden jar, on the foil. Holding the insulated part of wire, carefully move the bare end toward the nail. If the Leyden jar is charged, you will hear and/or see a spark. If you don't, then keep trying to charge and discharge the Leyden jar until you successfully do so. Once you are confident that you can charge the Leyden jar, carefully remove the wire. Do not tear the aluminum foil. Keep the wire for the next section.

This is a snippet from the procedure, with added emphasis on the wire stripper reference. You could get by with a craft knife or some other method if you'd rather use that.

[epiclouieman]

Thank you! Hopefully sand paper will work

[bfinio]

Hi epiclouieman,

We have a wire stripping tutorial with some videos that might be helpful:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... rial.shtml

For "hookup wire" (the type with colored plastic insulation), a sharp knife will be better than sandpaper. It looks like that's what you use in this experiment.

Wire strippers aren't super expensive, and very handy to have around if you plan on doing other electronics projects in the future:

http://www.amazon.com/TEKTON-3797-7-Inc ... B00AZWWY2K

[epiclouieman]

thank you! I although have one more problem.When i rub the wool on the acrylic, I hear some slight popping noises. I place the electrophorus on the acrylic, then touch the pie pan as I should. When I touch the electrophorus to the leyden jar nail, I see a spark. But, when I test to see if it received any charge by slowly connecting them with a wire,nothing happens. I made the jar as i should have...

[bfinio]

Hi epiclouieman,

Unfortunately I'm not very familiar with the details of this experiment, so I'm not sure. Hopefully someone else will be able to help you further though.

-Ben