3 ms·
Tupperware tends to be plastic, the BBC article doesn't really mention if they tested different container materials with the same substrate. For example, would
by rikkipitt 13y ago
Tupperware tends to be plastic, the BBC article doesn't really mention if they tested different container materials with the same substrate. For example, would a wooden container yield the same results with flour as the "soil"?
Their abstract mentions the use of 3 types of "soil" - organic powders, polymeric disks and glass particles. Does anyone have access to the full article to see if they repeated the experiment with differing containers?
- throwaway_yy2Di 13y agoI had the same thought. The box in the photograph looks like acrylic, which has a strong triboelectric potential. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triboelectric_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triboelectric_effect Here's a paper by the authors: http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.2489 http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.2489 "The shear cell is nominally 125 cm × 26 cm in size, and the particles are weakly confined by either a 0.5 mm clear flexible PVC or 1.4 mm thick acrylic sheet in order to suppress out-of-plane buckling. The sheet is wiped with a damp cloth before the experiment to minimize triboelectrification."
- rikkipitt 13y agoExactly. Also, it's a bit hard to determine but the container looks closed. In my mind that would provide another surface to enhance the triboelectric potential you mentioned. Edit: Thanks for that link. Why don't they remove the triboelectric contribution altogether by using a more sensible container for obtaining reliable results?