Equipment and Material used for Quantised Inertia Experiments
DISCLAIMER: The product links included on this page are Amazon Affiliate links. If you purchase a product with the links above, Arundal Astronautics Ltd may receive a small commission but there is no additional charge to you
Basic Starting Apparatus:
If you have some understanding of coding and electronics, then a good starter set would include a soldering station, digital scales (to measure for milligram changes in the event of thrust), a DC power supply and a Raspberry Pi module. Having a Raspberry Pi will allow you to create a Python script and log in wirelessly so you can create a remote setup test station (like the University of Plymouth team). Some basic electronics wiring is also useful!
Capacitor Build Materials:
A selection of material ideas if you want to test out your own capacitor builds in the search for Quantised Inertia. For the dielectric, materials that are have thicknesses of 10 microns or higher would be ideal (a fine balancing act to be found with dielectric thickness and capacitor burn out!) We are currently using aluminium foil as the conductor plates, which you can easily find in the kitchen section of most shops!
For quick YouTube video guides on a QI capacitor stack builds
Copper Conductor Only : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB3pqlHvA_s
Copper Conductor + Aluminium Layers: https://youtu.be/n2i-XWw3XHc
In the capacitor stack build videos above, there a few other materials to build the “slides” (which help compact and press together the capacitor components). If you would like to copy this concept, the materials I used are also shown below (note that nylon nuts, bolts and washers were chosen to minimise local conductors that may influence the experiment).
Dielectrics & Capacitor Stack Components (Last Updated 9th July 2022)