Charging by friction

John Travoltage by PhET Interactive Simulations, University of Colorado Boulder, licensed under CC-BY-4.0 (https://phet.colorado.edu)

The title of the Project: Charging by friction

Purpose of the work:

• Identify how charging by friction works.

Expected results:

• When two neutral bodies are rubbed there will be some transfer of electrons from one body to the other one. As a result, one of the bodies will be charged negatively and the other one will be charged positively. This is how charging by friction works.

Practical part

This is a small instruction for the virtual laboratory.

Virtual experiment.

Step 1. Make John rub the carpet with his leg. What happens? John acquires some negative charge because of friction between his leg and the carpet.

Step 2. Make John touch the doorhandle, which is made of conducting material. What happens? As John touches the doorhandle, the charges start to move to the conducting handle and resulting in sparkling.

Step 3. Make a conclusion. 

Conclusion

When two neutral bodies are rubbed there will be some transfer of electrons from one body to the other one, which is called charging by friction.