How easy is it to build a simple demonstration at home that proves fundamental law of physics, such as Coulomb’s inverse square law, or Maxwell’s equations? This is one of those questions that always nagged at [Casual Physics Enjoyer] as they sought to find ways to develop a more intuitive understanding of these fundamentals with simple DIY-at-home experiments. Unfortunately this turned out to be rather tricky for Coulomb’s law.

Us H. sapiens – courtesy of a few bright individuals – have figured out many of the fundamentals that underlie this physical world over the past few thousands of years. Even if we still got some pretty massive fundamentals left today for equally bright-minded folk to bash their collective heads against, basics like Coulomb’s law or Maxwell’s equations ought to be a snap now for the average person to replicate since they were after all performed in an era before quantum mechanics, computers or even electrification.

To the dismay of the average physics student, experiments that demonstrate these fundamental laws of physics are still pretty hard to replicate without some solid time and monetary investment. This is demonstrated quite succinctly in the linked article, where the question of how to demonstrate the force between two charged particles, as in Coulomb’s law, and that it is an inverse square relationship is attempted.

Whereas the Wikipedia entry claims it to be a ‘simple experiment’ with just two identical spheres, in a DIY setting this is somewhat tricky, including the part where you have to charge up the spheres and measure the force. Using some aluminium foil and wires you can get the two ends to separate as you’d expect, but quantifying the force is a whole other matter.