Van de Graff

Physics homework for 2/5/15:

Huge Metal Balls (Van de Graff)

            Today we talked about electrostatic charges as well as took some notes and did a few interactive things and group work. We also got to see a Van de Graff in action!

The Van de Graff did a variety of different things, but I'm assuming only a handful of things need to be described and what not. 

         One thing the Van de Graff did was was it ended up shocking one of the balls on a stick when the ball got close to the generator. The reason this happened was because the belt inside the machine was made of rubber (which is an insulator) so it ended up picking up electrons from the big metal ball on top of the machine and from the air inside of the machine maybe? These electrons probably made the belt negatively charged and as the big ball was made of metal it was a good conductor. So, the electrons from the belt ran through the big ball and straight through to the other ball because it was ALSO metal! The charge must have been strong enough and the balls were in close distance with each other. Whenever the electrons moved through the balls a little blue spark was seen because the electrons were being conducted through the metal. (Also, Miss Reid did not get shocked because she was holding a wood stick that was holding the ball so the wood protected her because of its insulating properties). Plus, I believe since the ball was neutral the electrons from the big ball interacted with the protons from the little ball causing static electricity.

       Another thing the Van de Graff did was it lit up a little glow stick attached to a wooden stick when the glow stick touched the big metal ball. The explanation for this is basically, once again, the electrons from the belt flow to the metal ball all the way through to the little glow stick. And as the electrons obviously have some energy, spark, and what not they give the glow stick some energy to light up but not so well because the electrons flow out through one end of the glow stick instantly afterwards. 

      Additionally, the little ball was also repelled at one point from the big ball. Reason being is the big ball was already negatively charged, and once the little ball was also negatively charged (by rubbing it against the big ball which caused some electrons to be taken away and attracted to some protons) the balls wanted to repel from each other whenever they got close. Why? Because similarly charged objects naturally repel! And since both balls were negatively charged they both wanted to get the hell away from each other!

    Finally, to sum the last two parts up quickly we also had a little silver ribbon that flew towards the big metal ball and flew away from it after and repeated this cycle for a while as well as Miss Reid getting her hair done :3 (poor Miss). The ribbon was in its little cycle due to the fact that at first it was positive so it was attracted to the negatively charged big ball (because opposites attract). BUT, once it actually touched the big awesome ball it stole some electrons causing it to be negatively charged which made it repel from the negatively charged ball. Even then once the ribbon flew back and away from the big magical ball it gave away electrons so then it was positively charged which caused it to go BACK to the negatively charged ball! Ugh, so biPOLAR--hUEUEUEUEHHEHEHEHAHAHAHA--*SHOT* And Miss Reid touched the big metal ball which caused her hair to float majestically. Why? Because why the *bleep* not? It's for physics :33--oh you mean why did her hair float? Well, that's because the electrons from the metal ball flowed through her hand and spread up to her hair which probably negatively charged it a lot and since a lot of her hair was negatively charged the hair must have repelled from itself. 

Extra: Hmm, what would I wanna do with a Van de Graff? I would be that one weirdo who grabs a Barbie and tries to make its hair stand up. >:-)))) mUAhAHA--No, but really, maybe I'd try to make something like paper float up by holding my hand above it while touching the Van de Graff? I've heard of people doing stuff with paper and fabric. Basically I think since I'd be negatively charged the paper would be attracted to me and stuff but that sounds boring. Levitation is cool though! Maybe we could make stuff levitate like little paper airplanes?? :DD I'm not quite sure how it'd all work but I believe you'd need many things with the same charge so that everything could just repel and float up. Maybe the little balls are needed for this too? Dunno, but there are just weird ideas :333.

<3 vwv Good night me ship mates >:3!! :DD