How does the capacitor work and how do i use it?
The amount of capacitance you created with foil is probably pretty smallWhen you connect a volt meter to it, the meter's leakage current discharges itIdeally meters have infinite resistance, so when you make a measurement no current flows, but real meters, the kind you can actually buy, have finite resistance, so when you measure your capacitor, actually discharge itThere's a formula that's handy: icdv/dtI is current in amps, C is capacitance in farads and dv/dt is the change in capacitor voltage per secondYou probably created 300 pF of capacitanceCharged to 9V with your batteryA typical meter might be drawing 1 micro-amp, so solving for dv/dt you find the capacitor's voltage will change by 3,333 volts/second when you connect the meter to itNEVER I REPEAT NEVER connect anything to an outletYou will hurt yourself badly either with a bad shock, or burnsLastly, don't confuse static electricity (the kind generated by running materials together) with current electricityThey are completely different animals.
