I saw this thing my math teacher made. At first it looked like a gumball machine with a sphere for the gumballs and a pole that holds it up. The device actually made lightning pop out. When he turned off the light and switched the machine on, lightning shot out of it. He put his arm next to the thing when it was on and it made his muscles twitch. He says the muscles responded or something to it because they are electrical. It made a classmate's hair stand up on end. The class made held arms and the shock went through everyone. It made my feet feel weird. It crackled when it hit someone. It felt like someone pinched you. If you used a microscope, you can see burns because the lightning was hitting you.

The sphere was made of a metal and was silver in color. The pole seemed transparent with something blue inside of it. This blue thing was perhaps charging the sphere since it was moving.

 

What is the name of this device? Can you find the instructions to make it? If you can, please attach a picture.

Van de graff? Tesla coil? Im not sure, Do a search on google for both and see how they look.

**Van der Graaff generator, i think YT made one or something similar

 

http://tectonicdesigns.com/sci/vandegraaf/vandegraff.html

Van de Graaf generator. As far as I know, you have the metal ball, a tube, and some sort of belt (cloth?) running from a motor at the bottom to the ball with pulleys. It makes static electricity and deposits it in the ball.

Yea a cloth is rubbed against the metal which removes the electrons from the metal or giving electrons i forget, either way it makes it charged therefore attractive

You may wanna try different spellings if you do a search... It seams there are a few ways to spell it that give results.

thanks, wow that was quick

Just found this link its far better

 

http://science.howstuffworks.com/vdg2.htm

the easiest way to know for sure is if you describe the sound it made, if you could hear a motor sound and a slight rummble (from the belt as they need to be fairly loose), then it was a Van De Graff.

if you could hardly hear yourself think, it was a Tesla coil in all probability.

if it was almost silent, then it was solid state Tesla coil

 

hope that helps

It looks like it was the Van de Graff. Thanks

Roger That

 

I can`t see a teacher bringing in a tesla coil to let his students experiment with anyway, they can kill experts that aren`t carefull!!!!

 

non the less, a homemade Van De Graff machine! it sounds like you`ve got one hell of a cool Maths teacher there dude

Ya I have heard all kinds of stories about performers being killed when there coil contacted mains. I dont think I would wanna go that way.

I'm building a VDG right now, and am just looking for a motor.

I'm going to go find a variable speed drill for cheap, so i can change the speed of my VDG without too much trouble with pulse width modulators and so on.

My rollers are nylon66 and HDPE. The belt is cut from a copy machine belt.

I haven't tried this, but i'll let you know how it turns out when I finish.

Excellent! see if you can get some pics of it too, I`de love to see the finished product, Good luck with it

If it produced visible streamers, it was almost certainly a Tesla coil. I'll post some pics of my 7.5 Kv baby in action sometime.

Nevermind, I actually read the entire post, and it sounds like a Van De Graf

For all things tesla, check out deepfriedneon.com

wahey! a fellow coiler !!!

 

nice site

anyone know how to make a jacobs ladder?

 

those are cool lookin

anyone know how to make a jacobs ladder?

 

those are cool lookin

 

Sure, take a high voltage transformer with a decent current output and then bend two electrodes into a V shape with a space in the bottom.

I wish I had enough spare time to do these things... Oh well, this summer I'll have time... Any other good links for Van de Graff's?