Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Me and my dad have been working on the "where there is charge, there can be sparks" experiment. We had built the Electrophorus and Jar following the steps (We even remade it multiple times just to make sure that we had it right). We took off the adhesive and rubbed the acrylic sheet with the wool for about a minute. Once we placed the pie pan on the acrylic, we took the electrophorus by the Styrofoam cup and placed it to the top of the nail and... nothing happened. We tried again, rubbing the acrylic sheet for another minute, but we didn't hear any crackling. We tried multiple times rubbing the acrylic sheet, making sure to not make contact with my hand, but nothing happened.
If someone can try to help us actually charge it, it would be very grateful.
Date Question Posted: 11/29/17
Date Project Due: 12/6/17

Hi jussie14,

I'm assuming that you are working on the project described here:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... rge-sparks

Based on the procedure you described in your post, it seems that you may have left out one step. After you've placed the pie pan on the acrylic sheet, you should touch the edge of the pie pan with the tip of your finger. This is mentioned in the project procedure under “Charging the Electrophus” at step 2.

The following videos show demonstrations of electrophus charging. These techniques may be useful in getting your experiment working.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIiA0-SSftM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBdELy5_5cI

I hope this helps. Please ask again if you have more questions.

A. Norman