static electricity
SAFE STATIC ELECTRICITY
LINK TO SAFE STATIC ELECTRICITY
You'll learn more physics from this one than you know what to do with
LINK TO EXCELLENT STATIC ELECTRICITY SITE
This is a picure of making a charge collector for a van der graaff generator.
This is a capacitor + spark gap + collector comb made from a plastic pudding bowl, some sellotape and a small amount of aluminium foil. It's charged by rubbing a length of pvc waste pipe with a paper towel and passing the pvc tube over the pickup comb.
This is the same thing from underneath. The conductor is held at the spark-gap end with a bit of blue tack so you can adjust it. I found I could make quarter-inch sparks.
make an electrophorus
This is a van de graaff generator which can be made without any special materials or skills.
It is made from six plastic bottles: two uprights and two rollers each of which is made from the ends of two plastic bottles. Bottles with bulges at the top are best for making the rollers. The bearings at top and bottom are made from bent wire, this allows adjustment of the rollers so that the belt stays on; the belt shouldn't go too fast or it vibrates. The brush at the top should just touch the belt. It is all stuck together with sellotape, in practice it's a good idea to hold the two bottles together with a cross-brace made from cardboard or styrofoam.
Your hand both holds the machine with a loop of wire and rubs the belt as it rotates, because your fingers are very sesitive they can sense the friction on the belt. Use your free hand to bring an empty beer tin near the charge collector to form a spark gap.
How it works
This only works intermittently so there is a lot of scope for improvement. When it does work I find experimenting compulsive, because it's made without any resources you aren't afraid of making radical changes.
ask mr science. About half-way down
wikipedia
fun fly stick
more ambitious
relevant link
another link
how to make ball lightning
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My email davidvwilliamson@hotmail.com