Equipotential Mapping Lab

Map the electric field lines and lines of equipotential around a dipole.

You should have the following materials at your lab table.

1. corkboard tray

2. multimeter

3. black dipole mapping page

4. three T pins

5. two 9V batteries

6. set of alligator wires

1. Snap the batteries together as shown below.

2. Place the black dipole sheet in the middle of the corkboard and insert 3 T pins as shown below.

• one pin in the left silver dot
• one pin in the right silver dot
• one pin a roughly the midpoint between the two silver dots

Make sure the pins make good contact with the silver/black paper.

DO NOT use an existing pin hole.

3. Wire in the batteries and multimeter as shown below.

• The left silver dot is POSITIVE.
• The right silver dot is NEGATIVE.

Connect the COMMON lead to the midpoint pin.

The voltage where the common touches is set to equal zero.

Set the multimeter to the 20 V setting

4. Using the RED lead, map 3 lines of equal voltage (equipotential) around each silver dot.

The RED lead needs to make solid contact to get a good reading. Angle the probe to the beveled edge make contact with the paper. DO NOT use the tip of the lead or push the tip of the lead through the paper.

Record you mapping lines on your lab paper.

5. Measure and record the voltage of each silver dot.

6. Complete page 1 of the lab.