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This Electric Field Physics Lab Isn’t What You Think It Is.
The problem with the second semester of introductory physics lab is that it’s difficult to match up with the lecture course. Normally, the physics textbook starts off with Coulomb’s law and then electric fields and stuff. That’s cool and everything, but measuring the forces due to electric charges isn’t really easy (it’s very possible though). On top of that, if you live somewhere warm the humidity in the air messes up all your static charges.
That brings us to the electric field mapping experiment (shown above). The basic idea is that you can get this special electrically conducting paper and then paint some shapes on the paper with conducting ink. When an electric potential difference is applied to two ink-lines, you get a current running through the paper. Then you can measure the electric potential at different points. Finally, using the potential you can calculate the electric field.
I mean, it’s not a perfect experiment but it does give you some time do something in lab while the lecture works on getting to circuits and stuff that you can easily set up in real life. Personally, I like this lab because the students can collect potential data and use it to calculate the electric field based on finite position differences.
