High Voltage Report - February 26, 2024

Joris Könicke
March 4, 2024

1 Introduction
The lecture on February 26, 2024, covered experiments and formulas related to
the topic of static electricity. This report summarizes what I learned during the
lecture.

2 Experiment 1
We began with an experiment where each student sat on a chair and rubbed
their feet on the ground to charge themselves. We then touched a voltmeter to
measure the voltage our bodies carried. In my case, it was approximately 11
kV at its peak.
On the board, we learned that the current in the spark was around 0.5 A.
The current decreases similarly to a discharging capacitor, taking about 1 µs to
discharge. To minimize the discomfort during discharge, one can either hold a
resistor to decrease the current amplitude, even if it takes longer to discharge,
or use an object to increase the discharge area. We used a knife and did not
feel any pain.
Additionally, we wanted to determine the body’s charge (positiv or negativ).
A rod was used to identify the direction of current flow when held against
different contact surfaces. This revealed that the body was positively charged,
while the chair was negatively charged.

3 Experiment 2
For the second experiment, we aimed to understand the effects of grounding
either the chair or the body. We hypothesized that grounding the negatively
charged chair would result in only positive charges flowing, and grounding the
positively charged body would result in only negative charges flowing. Conse-
quently, the voltage flow would be halved in either case.

1
4 Experiment 3
In the third experiment, we sought to determine the body’s capacitance. Using
a voltage divider with a total resistance of 1 GΩ, we calculated the capacitance
using the formula τ = R · C. Assuming the capacitor (comprising the body and
chair) discharged to approximately 37% in 220 ms, we rearranged the formula to
−3
τ
C= R , resulting in C = 220·10
109 . Therefore, the capacitance is approximately
220 pF.

5 Summary
The experiments revealed insights into static electricity, covering voltage mea-
surement, discharge characteristics, grounding effects, and capacitance determi-
nation. The body was found to be positively charged, and the chair negatively
charged, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of the topic.