Amber to Electricity: Ancient Discoveries & Experiments

1. Lecture 23 Dead Cats & The Basics of Electricity Bolemon Parts of Chapters 17-20

2. Probable First Observation of Electricity

3. Idiot? If lightening had actually traveled down the kite string, old Ben Franklin would have been toast!

4. Don’t Mess With Mother NatureSt. Elmo’s Fire Top of Mast

5. History • 600 BC • Thales of Miletos rubs amber (elektron in Greek) and observed some strange effects. • Important questions: • Why was he doing this? • Didn’t he have a job?? • What happened to the skinned cat?

6. Amber Million years ago large stands of forests in some parts of the world began to seep globs of sticky resin! This aromatic resin oozed down the sides of trees, as well as filling internal fissures, trapping debris, such as seeds, leaves, feathers and insects. As geologic time progressed the forests were buried and the resin hardened into a soft, warm, golden gem, known as amber. Amber is the fossilized resin of ancient trees which forms through a natural polymerization of the original organic compounds. Most of the world's amber is in the range of 30-90 million years old.

7. Let's reproduce some of the early experiments

8. WARNING! These experiments do not always work! Humidity can hurt so do not exhale for the next 30 minutes!

9. Scotch tape • Required – 1 roll of tape • 1 volunteer • Observers

10. Demo Objects • Dead Cat – Skinned … keep the skin • Rubber Rods • Glass Rods • Silk Cloth • Wood • Aluminum • Metal 2 x 4 on a stand

11. 0 / 34 Rub 2 rubber rods with the skin of a dead cat • They will attract each other • They will repel each other • They will not interact with each other • It depends on when you killed the cat. Cross-Tab Label

12. 0 / 34 How does the Force of interaction depend on the distance? • It increases as the distance gets smaller between them. • It is independent of the distance. • It increases as the distance gets bigger. Cross-Tab Label

13. 0 / 34 Rub 2 glass rods with silk • The rods will attract • The rods will repel • The rods won’t do anything. Cross-Tab Label

14. 0 / 34 Rubber rods with silk • Attract • Repel • Nothing • They will explode Cross-Tab Label

15. 0 / 34 Rubber/Cat + glass/silk • Attract • Repel • Ignore each other Cross-Tab Label

16. 0 / 34 Rubber and Cat’s Fur • Attract • Repel • No interaction Cross-Tab Label

17. Some of the observations-RODS

18. PLUS • The Glass attracted the silk • The Rubber attracted the dead cat

19. Two Kinds of Interaction • Attraction • Repulsion

20. Some conclusions (corrected) • When two things are rubbed together, something happens. • We call what happens .. charging. • It seems that there are two kinds of charge • The rubber charge is called NEGATIVE • The cat charge is called POSITIVE • Like Charges Repel • Un-Like charges Attract

21. 0 / 34 Based on our observations today, what charge winds up on the glass rod when rubbed by silk? • POSITIVE • NEGATIVE • Can’t Tell Cross-Tab Label

22. Two by Four