Experimental Evaluation of the Claimed Coulomb Rotation (Electrostatic Torque)

TL;DR

This study experimentally investigated claims of electrostatic torque in a three-sphere system, finding the observed rotation was due to mass asymmetry rather than electrostatic forces, thus refuting the original claim.

Contribution

The paper provides the first experimental validation that the claimed electrostatic torque does not occur, attributing observed effects to mass distribution rather than electrostatic interactions.

Findings

Observed rotation caused by asymmetric mass distribution.

Null results showed no electrostatic torque within experimental resolution.

Refuted previous claims of electrostatic torque in the system.

Abstract

In the year 2002 publications of A.V.M. Khachatourian and A.O. Wistrom were released, in which the existence of an electrostatic torque has been claimed. This moment of force should act in a three sphere configuration, where one sphere is held at a constant electric potential. This claim was based on an observed rotation and was supported by a mathematical solution derived by Wistrom and Khachatourian. The theoretical work of Wistrom and Khachatourian as well as the interpretation of the observed rotation were criticized by several scientists who offered alternative explanations for the rotation. We therefore designed an experimental setup which enabled us to investigate the phenomenon. By performing numerous measurements, we showed that the rotation is due to asymmetric mass distribution within the sphere, which is dislocated due to electrostatic forces between the spheres. We were able to clear our measurements from this effect and observed a null result more than two orders of magnitude smaller than predicted by Khachatourian and Wistrom's theory. We therefore showed that the rotation doesn't occur in an electrostatic system within the resolution of our experiment.