Design and construction of a gold leaf electroscope
Abstract
A gold leaf electroscope is a common demonstration equipment found in many schools and introductory college physics laboratories. Demonstration of effects of electrostatic forces is done mainly by using a simple leaf electroscope. Several physics phenomena like charge detection and identification of a body as an insulator or a conductor are all carried out in schools using the leaf electroscope. The leaf electroscope was invented by Abraham Bennett and described in a letter published by the Royal Society in 1787. This project will design and construct a leaf electroscope using readily available materials to reduce the shortage of electroscopes in most countries due to the industrially made ones being very expensive to acquire. This project will avail a gold leaf electroscope that is as sensitive as the industrially made ones and can therefore be used by people to serve a number of purposes like what any other electroscope can do.