El-13 Faraday's Cage
Aim
To demonstrate that there is no electrostatic field inside a statically charged conductor.
Apparatus
- Gold leaf electroscope
- Faraday cage
- Small Van de Graaff generator
- Transistor radio
Faraday Cage and Radio; Big Faraday Cage, Electroscope and Van de Graaf.
Description
An electroscope is placed inside the large Faraday cage about 2 metres from the Van de Graaff. Starting the Van de Graaff produces no deflection of the leaves of the electroscope whereas an equivalent electroscope outside the cage diverges.
Alternatively a transistor radio may be placed upon a sheet of aluminium. Enclosing the radio with the wire mesh cage causes a dramatic decrease in sound level.