{"title":"High-voltage electrostatic slides: Are they still relevant for teaching in the era of numerical simulations?","authors":"Pedro Llovera-Segovia , Josep Simón-Castel , Vicente Fuster-Roig , Alfredo Quijano-López","doi":"10.1016/j.elstat.2025.104179","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The teaching of electrostatics has been a cornerstone of physics and engineering education for centuries. Its focus has evolved significantly, transitioning from a 19th-century practical approach represented by Ganot's textbooks to a predominantly theoretical treatment in the 20th century, often presented as an introductory course to more complex electromagnetic problems. By the time the industrial applications of electrostatics, became prominent in the mid-20th century (particularly in plastics manufacturing), practical electrostatics had largely disappeared from student textbooks. However, during the first half of the 20th century, specialized companies began to develop science education tools for schools and universities which included electrostatics demonstrations. In Spain, ENOSA became a remarkable example, producing a wide range of educational materials for teaching science. Among their contributions were materials designed to demonstrate electrostatic principles. Notably, this company developed slides for visualizing electrostatic fields using specific electrode arrangements, an overhead projector, and a Van de Graaff generator. These slides contained cells filled with insulating oil and magnetic insulating particles, which visually aligned and moved when exposed to high-voltage potentials applied to the electrodes. This work outlines a brief history of these electrostatic demonstration slides and provides a detailed description of how they were designed to be used, based on ENOSA's reference materials and practical experience. Furthermore, it compares the educational value of these physical demonstrations with modern simulation techniques, such as finite element software. The pedagogical question of this study is whether these electrostatic slides remain relevant in contemporary electrostatics courses. Are these physical demonstration tools worth the effort and risks associated with their setup, or have finite element simulations in the classroom rendered them obsolete? From the students' perspective, what are the educational benefits of these traditional tools compared to modern software-based approaches?</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54842,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Electrostatics","volume":"138 ","pages":"Article 104179"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Electrostatics","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304388625001512","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The teaching of electrostatics has been a cornerstone of physics and engineering education for centuries. Its focus has evolved significantly, transitioning from a 19th-century practical approach represented by Ganot's textbooks to a predominantly theoretical treatment in the 20th century, often presented as an introductory course to more complex electromagnetic problems. By the time the industrial applications of electrostatics, became prominent in the mid-20th century (particularly in plastics manufacturing), practical electrostatics had largely disappeared from student textbooks. However, during the first half of the 20th century, specialized companies began to develop science education tools for schools and universities which included electrostatics demonstrations. In Spain, ENOSA became a remarkable example, producing a wide range of educational materials for teaching science. Among their contributions were materials designed to demonstrate electrostatic principles. Notably, this company developed slides for visualizing electrostatic fields using specific electrode arrangements, an overhead projector, and a Van de Graaff generator. These slides contained cells filled with insulating oil and magnetic insulating particles, which visually aligned and moved when exposed to high-voltage potentials applied to the electrodes. This work outlines a brief history of these electrostatic demonstration slides and provides a detailed description of how they were designed to be used, based on ENOSA's reference materials and practical experience. Furthermore, it compares the educational value of these physical demonstrations with modern simulation techniques, such as finite element software. The pedagogical question of this study is whether these electrostatic slides remain relevant in contemporary electrostatics courses. Are these physical demonstration tools worth the effort and risks associated with their setup, or have finite element simulations in the classroom rendered them obsolete? From the students' perspective, what are the educational benefits of these traditional tools compared to modern software-based approaches?
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Electrostatics is the leading forum for publishing research findings that advance knowledge in the field of electrostatics. We invite submissions in the following areas:
Electrostatic charge separation processes.
Electrostatic manipulation of particles, droplets, and biological cells.
Electrostatically driven or controlled fluid flow.
Electrostatics in the gas phase.