Electric fields are typically invisible but small fibres trapped in an electric field make the field viewable to the human eye. Students should remove the label stickers from a clear baby oil bottle. Cut up a heaping teaspoon of straight black hair fibres from a beauty salon or costume wig and wad together. Drop the wad into the oil, cap the bottle and shake to distribute fibres evenly. Charge a comb or balloon by rubbing it against human hair or animal fur and bring it near the side of the bottle. The hairs will gravitate toward the excess electrons and reveal the electric field between the bottle and the balloon or comb.
High school students with an affinity for electrical systems will avoid receiving shocks from charged metal surfaces by building an electric field detector. Push red and black connect wires into a breadboard. Connect the middle transistor lead to the red battery lead. Connect the field-effect transistor (FET) drain lead into the breadboard. Point the gate wire away from the other leads. Connect the LED lead by the flat section to the black wire and the other lead to the drain lead of the FET.
Attach the loose red and black wire ends to a 9-volt battery and check the LED light to make sure it glows. Secure with tape and experiment to detect electric fields by holding the gate wire near various objects in the room. A glowing LED light indicates the object is charged but if the light does not illuminate it is safe to touch the object without receiving a shock.
While electric fields are typically considered a physics field of study, botany students interested in environmental influences on plant growth and development should study the effects of electric fields on plant life. Acquire three identical bell pepper plants and locate a nearby transmission power line. Plant one test case at the base of the power line. Plant the second plant 50 metres away and the final plant 100 metres from the power line. Make sure each plant receives the same amount of moisture and sunlight each day. Observe for six weeks and determine whether the presence of a strong electrical field impedes a plant's ability to grow or produce fruit.
Simple circuit boards provide physics students with opportunities to observe and record equipotential and electric field lines. Insert a reference probe and movable hand probe on opposite sides of a breadboard. Connect a black wire from the hand probe to a microammeter and insert a red wire into the other microammeter port.
Insert a positive electrode in the breadboard near the hand probe and a negative electrode near the reference probe. Connect both electrodes to a 9-volt battery. Attach the loose end of the red wire from the microammeter to a voltmeter and run a black wire with a switch from the voltmeter's other port to the negative electrode. Turn on the apparatus for one minute and then disconnect the voltmeter. Determine the equipotential lines between the electrodes and draw an electric field map on graph paper.