From: Raleigh McLemore (raleighmclemore@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Jun 28 2004 - 09:10:11 PDT
Message-ID: <20040628161011.23038.qmail@web40209.mail.yahoo.com> Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2004 09:10:11 -0700 (PDT) From: Raleigh McLemore <raleighmclemore@yahoo.com> Subject: Static Argument
I was reading the "Tape Electroscope" stuff at the Exploratorium web site and saw that we (meaning Paul and other brainiacs) don't really know what is being transfrerred to make static charge. I missed learning this somewhere and have been teaching that it is "electrons" that move. It suggests that it might be molecular chunks that are moving, not only or just electrons. I always assumed that it was those pesky electrons that move because...uh, they don't have very much mass...or, they are always moving around anyway, why not jump off one thing and hang around some other thing for a while, and well, they're unhappy about not being able to visit the nucleus, but I never looked at it with a skeptical eye.
So Paul goes on to say "An experiment that shows it is electrons that move when tapes are pulled apart would really make my job of explaining what happens during electrostatic charging easier."
In the spirit of "Let your ignorance of things shine like a bright light" I propose a method. It will be a great example of how little I know about fundamental science, but so what. I should say that I've already given up on my idea of staining electrons with blue food coloring.
Could a mass of something that is easily charged be extremely charged as far as possible. Aren't their gazillions of electrons (?) being moved. Don't the electrons have a very tiny mass, isn't their affect on the mass of something similar to voting in Florida? If "chunks of matter" are being moved wouldn't the incredible difference in mass of the protons and neutrons (compared to electrons) in the chunks make the newly charged object much "heavier" than if it were charged with electrons? Is this impossible to measure? Even with a postal scale?
Still not enough to do at my summer job.
With firm handshake,
Raleigh
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