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spinning disk-magnet experiments

On Fri, 2 Jul 1999, Clarence Bennett wrote:

OK, Bill,

My scope beam is much too fast moving compared to the spin of the fridge
magnet.

How about hanging a pair of charged pith balls on threads above the spinner?
We can use some plastic wrap to avoid wind effects.

Now do you think the balls will move depending on the direction and speed
of spin?

Nope. For attainable RPMs of real-world magnets, I think e-fields would
be in the range of volts per meter (maybe tens of volts per meter?) Not
so easy to measure with pith balls. Also, I'd imagine that the
environment of a typical tabletop would already contain far stronger
fields. Touch the table, and it becomes charged. Peel off the plastic
wrap, and it becomes charged. It would be hard to eliminate all of
these. Maybe we could perform the experiment in a metal box where there
are no insulating materials to become charged?

The magnet should be an insulator, otherwise the free charges would feel
the qVxB force, redistribute themselves, and alter the results.



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