Part 3: Testing

Testing Preparations

1. Punch a hole through one section of foil in the lifter. Thread a piece of wire through, and twist so that it cannot come out. Attach the other piece of wire to the triangular wire.
2. Using alligator clips, hook up the top wire to the positive terminal, and the bottom wire to the negative terminal of the power supply.
3. Tape a small doughnut-shaped piece of cardboard to the top of a tripod. Place the tripod so that, by looking out through the hole in the paper, you can see the bottom edge of the lifter aligned with the 0 mark. Be careful not to move the tripod during testing, or the results may be skewed

Testing - Small Lifter

20mm gap

1. Adjust the gap between the wire and the foil to be 20mm.
2. Set the voltage to 2kV. Look through the cardboard circle and record any noticeable deflection (°), the voltage (kV), and the current (uA), on a chart. Leave room for a fourth column, power.
3. Increase the voltage by increments of two, recording each time the deflection, voltage, and current.
4. When the deflection begins to increase by more than about 2°, begin taking measurements every 1kV instead of 2.
5. Multiply the voltage and the current to get the power for each row.
6. Repeat the experiment for a second time, and make sure that the results are fairly close to each other. If necessary, redo inaccurate trials.

25mm gap

1. Adjust the gap to 25mm.
2. Repeat steps 2-6 on the 20mm testing procedure.

30mm gap

1. Adjust the gap to 30mm.
2. Repeat steps 2-6 on the 20mm testing procedure.

Testing - Large Lifter

Repeat the above procedure for the large lifter.