Re: inertia of 'electron stuff'

[Norris Preyer <npreyer@eou.edu>]

Chuck Britton <britton@odie.ncssm.edu> writes:

>  William Beaty <billb@eskimo.com> wrote
>
> I remember reading of an experiment done a century or so ago that spun a 
> coil of copper wire at high speed (with angular velocity parallel to the 
> symmetry axis). When the coil was suddenly braked to a halt, a brief 
> potential difference was measured across the ends of the coiled wire. The 
> 'leading' end was negative and the trailing end was positive, showing the 
> 'inertia' of a negatively charged substance. (Can anybody come up with a 
> reference to this experiment?)

Arons (7.12) refers to an experiment by Tolman and Stewart involving a
rotating spool of wire.  The titles are interesting:

Tolman, R. C., and Stewart, T. D. (1916), "The Electromotive Force
Produced by the Acceleration of Metals", Phys. Rev. 8, p97.

Tolman, R. C., and Stewart, T. D. (1917), "The Mass of the Electric
Carrier in Copper, Silver, and Aluminum", Phys. Rev. 9, p164.

> I propose that if this experiment is repeated with a wire composed of 
> zinc, beryllium, cadmium or other material with a POSITIVE Hall 
> coefficient, then the potential difference will be REVERSED, showing the 
> inertia (and 'reality') of 'holes'.
Someone (with a good library) should look up the second one--aluminum
has a positive Hall coefficient.  Purity might be a problem in 1917, however.

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