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Re: Student question/trioboelectric series



Donald Simanek, in an interesting posting on Physhare yesterday,
decried the lack of interest of students in finding their own
explanations for mysterious physical phenomena. This seems like a
good place to push that idea. Why not have the student take several
materials subject to the vagaries of static electricity and, by doing
appropriate experiments, construct his own triboelectric series among
his materials? It is an interesting exercise, and it is not difficult
to carry out the experiments, though one must be careful in
interpreting the results. My guess is that in carrying out the
experiments and constructing his own table of triboelectricity, and
if he knows anything about atoms and chemistry, he will probably come
up with a very plausible explanation of why it happens the way it
does, and what that says about atoms. It is quite likely that the
explanation will be correct, as well, and if it is not, then a plunge
into triboelectric theory might be even more instructive than it
would be before doing the experiments and trying it out.

I make this suggestion because the student asked the question "What
is the theoretically accepted model that explains the triboelectric
series?" This phrasing indicates to me that either he is only
interested in finding quick answer to an idle question, or he has not
ever been challenged to figure out his own answer before looking up
the "correct" answer. If he picks up this challenge (maybe not now,
but later; maybe not this topic, but some other that may interest him
more), then I would mark him as a serious student of science, worthy
of support, but support by not giving easy answers to all his
questions. If not, then he is not a serious student and we lose
nothing by not providing the easy answer he seeks.

I would not take this tack on every question asked, but this one is
particularly suited to direct investigation, and seems a good one to
try out Donald's suggestion on.

Hugh

ChavezCL@aol.com writes:
Mr. Ken Fox,
My name is Christopher Chavez and I am a senior at Central High
School in
Phoenix, Arizona. I am enrolled in an AP Physics class and recently we
came
across the triboelectric series. Unable to explain its organization, my
teacher has asked me to research this topic. I found your chart that you
have on the web and later discovered your email address. My question is:

> What is the theoretically accepted model that explains the
triboelectric
>series?

I thank your for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Christopher Chavez
ChavezCL@aol.com


I am sorry I do not know the origin of the list. I put it there sometime
ago, a reprint from another's list. I will forward your message to them
and see if they can help. I will also send this to a couple of Physics
teacher lists to see if we can get some help.

Ken Fox
AP/IB Physics Teacher
Smoky Hill High School, CO

--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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