Electroscope by TheMakerSteven

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

An electroscope is a tool used to demonstrate the effects of electric charges, conduction, and induction. For example, with a metal electroscope, by holding a charged rod near the bulb at the top, the opposite charges are attracted to the top and the like charges are repelled to the vanes at the bottom, causing them to tilt and separate. If you ground the scope while still holding the charged rod near, the like charges are repelled to the ground, leaving only opposite charges on the metal. If the rod is then removed, the opposite charges disperse throughout the vanes and cause them to tilt until the metal is grounded again and like charges are allowed to flow back into the scope. This phenomenon is known as induction, and is one of a few ways to cause the electroscope to demonstrate a physical property.
I printed this electroscope twice: The first time was with ProtoPasta magnetic iron filament (greyish) and used a Z-pause to achieve the color difference in the base. Magnetic iron will not hold a charge, but you can instead use strong magnets like neodymiums to manipulate the vanes into moving. The second time was with conductive PLA (blackish) and used dual extrusion to achieve the color difference in the base. I have yet to test if the conductive filament will hold a charge well.