- #1
spareine
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If a person with long thin hair touches a Van de Graaff generator, his hair will begin to levitate by electrostatic repulsion. The body is a conductor. Hair is an isolator, so the charge cannot flow through the shaft from root to end. To me it is unclear whether the hair is charged triboelectrically, as the hair is not forcefully rubbed against the skin. A person's hair only partially touches his head.
I made this video last winter, using woolen thread as a model of single hair, on a piece of cardboard. Initially, the hair is lying flat on a piece of cardboard. Cardboard is a conductor for static electricity, and it is lying on a plastic bucket for isolation from ground. The cardboard is charged by a "fun fly stick" (a toy version of the Van de Graaff generator). No force is applied. The thread begins to levitate.
Questions:
1) In what way is the charge transferred to the thread
2) how is the charge distributed over the thread: like in drawing A or B?
3) how much charge will be transferred to the thread, after charging for a few minutes. (I am interested in predicting the charge from the electric properties, not in using gravity for a reverse calculation)
Brown: conducting surface at voltage V. Blue: dielectric cylinder
I made this video last winter, using woolen thread as a model of single hair, on a piece of cardboard. Initially, the hair is lying flat on a piece of cardboard. Cardboard is a conductor for static electricity, and it is lying on a plastic bucket for isolation from ground. The cardboard is charged by a "fun fly stick" (a toy version of the Van de Graaff generator). No force is applied. The thread begins to levitate.
Questions:
1) In what way is the charge transferred to the thread
2) how is the charge distributed over the thread: like in drawing A or B?
3) how much charge will be transferred to the thread, after charging for a few minutes. (I am interested in predicting the charge from the electric properties, not in using gravity for a reverse calculation)
Brown: conducting surface at voltage V. Blue: dielectric cylinder
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