Electricity and Magnetism Demos

Click on the following categories to view a list of demos or scroll down to browse.

Electrostatics Electric Fields and Potential Capacitance Resistance DC Circuits

Magnetic Materials Magnetic Fields and Forces Inductance Electromagnetic Induction Miscellaneous

Click on the following titles to view a picture and description of each demo.

Electrostatics

• Charge an Electroscope
• Electrostatic Generator
• Charge-propelled Coke Can
• Conductors versus Insulators
• Electrophorus
• Kelvin's Water Drop Experiment
• Pith Ball Electroscope
• Racing Ball
• Rods and Fur
• Light a bulb with your static discharge
• Smashing a sugar cube in the dark (see sparks)
• Electrical charge detectors (Vernier) used with various charged objects (such as pieces of tape pulled apart) to detect equal and opposite charges, etc.

Electric Fields and Potential

• Electrostatic Ping Pong
• Electrostatic Wind
• Faraday Ice Pail
• Faraday’s Law of Induction
• Hair Standing on End (Van de Graaff)
• Jumping Pie Plates (Van de Graaff)
• Neon Wand (Van de Graaff)
• Sparks (Van de Graaff)
• Streamers (Van de Graaff)
• Defibrillator unit (demo) -- used to rescuscitate heart attack victims

Capacitance

• Capacitor with Dielectric
• Discharge a Capacitor
• Dissectible Condenser (Leyden Jar)
• Open Air Capacitor
• Capacitive Studfinder (purchase from hardware store!)
• Defibrillator unit (demo) -- used to rescuscitate heart attack victims

Resistance

• Coil of Wire in Liquid Nitrogen
• Jacob's Ladder
• Tofu Dog Cooker

DC Circuits

• Discharging a Capacitor through a Light Bulb
• Light Bulbs in Series and Parallel
• RC Filtering
• Wheatstone Bridge

Magnetic Materials

• Electromagnet
• Levitating Superconducting Disk (Meissner Effect)
• Lodestone Magnets
• Which One's a Magnet?

Magnetic Fields and Forces

• Hall effect probe (used with coils to measure quantitative values of field dependences on distance, etc.
• 3D Magnetic Fields
• Cathode Ray Tube
• Compass
• Dip Needle
• Electron Charge to Mass Ratio
• Electron Charge to Mass Ratio (Trick!)
• Field near a Wire
• Jumping Wire
• Levitating Foil
• Levitation Magnets
• Magnetic Arrow
• Magnetic Deflection of Electron Beam
• Magnetic Field of a Solenoid
• Magnetic Forces Between Two DC Currents
• Oersted's Law
• Torque on a Coil of Wire
• Magnetic silly putty

Electromagnetic Induction

• Eddy Current Levitator
• Eddy Current Pendulum
• Eddy Current Tube
• Genecon Generator
• Induction Coils for the Overhead Projector
• Inductive Ring Launcher
• Simple Motors
• Hand powered flashlight
• Induction powered flashlight

Miscellaneous

• Electron Diffraction
• Electroscope
• Faraday Cage
• Interaction Between Magnet and Current
• Radio Antenna
• Tesla Coil
• No-contact Ammeter

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