El-13 Faraday's Cage
Published: Tuesday 14 March 2006 - Updated: Thursday 31 March 2011
To demonstrate that there is no electrostatic field inside a statically charged conductor.
- Gold leaf electroscope
- Faraday cage
- Small Van de Graaff generator
- Transistor radio
Click on pictures to enlarge.
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.