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Re: Slightly off topic- Van DeGraff Generator / other E&Mexperiments



Original poster: "rob by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <rob-at-pythonemproject-dot-com>

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Matt Woody Meyer by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <meyerml-at-stolaf.edu>
> 
> I know at some point last week there was a discussion on the drag forces
> created
> on a Van De Graff belt-motor.  I'm curious, for those who've built them...
> for a
> medium size generator (let's say 5-6 feet tall) what power motor and what rpm
> settings would work well.
> 
> I am the presidient for St. Olaf's Society of Physics Students, and for our
> project next year, we are considering putting together a massive electric
> show to
> present to local schools (all ages, from Kindergarten to High School).  I
> figure
> that most of the demonstrations should be done with a VDG (sparks, lighting
> neon
> bulbs, showing electrostatic "pull" on a nearby uncharged sphere), etc.
> 
> I have a handfull of demo ideas already, including a tesla coil, of course!
> But
> any suggestions for other very impressive demonstrations would be greatly
> appreciated.  Please feel free to e-mail me directly (meyerml-at-stolaf.edu)
with
> any wonderful ideas you may have.  Our current list is this:
> 
> -large Jacob's Ladder
> -VDG experiments (including hair-raising with a smaller one)
> -Hand-crank power generator (presentor screws in bulbs/resistors as the
person
> cranks until "blackout" occurs)
> -melting a wire by too much current
> -discharging large capacitor through wire (much more impressive than
> melting wire)
> -coin crushing / can crushing
> -tesla coil (grand finale, of course). :)
> 
> Thanks much again,
> ><>Matt
> 

If you discharge high voltage from a large cap through an SCR into a
piece of solder it will explode with more violence than anything else I
have seen.  You could probably use it as a blasting cap :)   I believe
its the vaporized flux that really causes the bang.  And with the SCR,
you just connect your pushbutton switch to the gate far away from the
experiment.

Wasn't exploding wire detonators part of the first nuke?

Rob.


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