how much electric charge can you get
from a Van de Graaff generator and if
you let that charge build up what’s it
gonna do when it starts shocking stuff
this is a Van de Graaff generator now
this is not one that we built although
that may be a future project so this is
one that we just bought online and we’re
gonna have some fun experimenting with
it today for those of you who don’t know
a Van de Graaff generator is something
that lets you use static electricity to
build up some surprisingly large
electric charges the construction is
pretty basic let’s go over that first of
all we have this over here this is just
a wheel when we turn this wheel with its
handle over here it twists this smaller
wheel and this smaller wheel is what’s
actually doing the important stuff as
you can see this smaller wheel is on a
gear attached to this white rod in here
when I turn that wheel that white rod
starts spinning attached onto that rod
is this thick rubber band as it twists
that rubber band goes up it’s going past
this right here this is an electrode in
the shape of sort of a comb you can see
that it’s got all of these tiny little
teeth that are metal and it’s just being
held on this plastic sheet and that’s
just to hold it where it’s supposed to
go up here at the top our rubber band
goes around a clear rod and there is a
second comb this comb is attached to
this top piece which is a metal plate
which has this connecting point over the
top that as you can see fits nicely into
this dome shaped bell turning this wheel
and spinning all of the moving pieces in
here starts generating static
electricity with our two combs one of
the top one on the bottom that’s
attached to this Bell all of the
electricity gets built up in this metal
partial sphere it’s not a perfect sphere
but it’s generally ball shaped these
things are really cool because although
they have pretty low current they can
have extremely high voltage these
desktop models can probably generate at
least 100,000 volts so with all of that
the principle is pretty simple you turn
this wheel down here and it generates
static electricity up top which you can
then sometimes direct toward other
things or you can just touch it like
or you can just put your hands near it
like this this is an interesting
phenomenon to try and catch on camera
because it can easily be so quick that
it happens in between the frames of our
camera while filming this it’s maybe one
in ten of the sparks is actually getting
caught on camera which means I just had
shocked my hand quite a bit but that’s
what happens when you’re playing a fan
of graph generator so you’re gonna get
zapped
I can also try and make this sparks jump
from our large ball to this smaller ball
over here I think probably most people
have tried rubbing a balloon in their
hair until it builds up a static charge
to see and thick and stick to the walls
and stuff well we can have a sort of
amplified version of that here just
going to take our balloon we’re gonna
start cranking and see what happens that
was like one rotation how far away I can
get and still how’d it get pulled in
[Music]
the balloon sticks and then once I
discharged it the balloon just dropped
right down one of the best ways to
really show off the effect is to let it
run through hair a little bit and I
don’t have a ton of hair but this should
still be fun to watch it also likes to
jump the bridge through the air into
your hair really easily so quite a big
jolt onto my scalp so you can see how
it’s transferring the sparks over to my
hand it zaps me pretty well at least
sometimes you can see it but there’s
another way you can do this as well and
that’s instead of causing sparks to jump
little by little you can build the
charge up not just in the Bell not just
in this metal Bell but actually in
itself so if I have my hand on the Bell
directly and I’m insulated from the
ground which I’m doing right now by
wearing my high-quality proto putty
shoes seems a very good insulators I am
insulated however the frame of this
bench is not so if I put my hand on here
and turn the wheel a little bit I’ll
start building up a charge that will
then discharge as soon as I touch the
edge of that bench and it can be a big
discharge yeah oh man like you do these
ones right here and you only feel it
about as far as your knuckle but when I
do it like this my body can hold so much
more charge I feel it all the way
through my arm and my whole body jumps
involuntarily now something else I think
is pretty interesting and I discovered
this while playing around with the Van
de Graaff generator earlier today if I
take this powerful magnet and I put it
near the bail I’m now off the ground
again I’m in both of my rubber shoes if
I turn the wheel with the magnet near
the bail there’s no sparking there’s no
shocking and it doesn’t seem like it’s
doing anything at all but if I touch the
metal railing it gives me a jolt
so it’s charging me up the same way is
if I have my hand on the bail by putting
the magnet near the bail so I have not
yet had
to do research into exactly what is
happening but it appears that the
electric field generated by our Van de
Graaff generator is somehow using the
magnetic field to transfer the
electricity into me without having any
sparks that’s pretty cool
I had my cameraman turning the crank and
I was building up so much charge that he
was actually shocking me through my feet
through the proto party shoes into the
floor and so now I’m standing on a
wooden board to see if that offers even
can feel it all my arm hairs they’re
just getting tingly now I’m going to
attack my cameraman well very quickly
building a charge I feel like Thor and I
all right here goes holy cow
what oh my gosh oh that was crazy okay
we’re getting some crazy big shocks by
having my cameraman turn this while I’m
really well insulated so we have this
little gallium metal cast Lego figure
and I want to see if we can shock that
okay so this is kind of weird like if I
go over here on the shelf
I get a giant zap but if I go to the
gallium figure it just makes a hissing
fizzing sound sounds a lot like Tesla
coil so that just zapped me but it’s a
pretty small zap compared to the charge
up for a bit we were trying to grab some
footage of shocking a small gallium
passed Lego man because we thought it
would be fun to make me look like Thor
but we discovered that something about
the gallium is causing some weird things
to happen rather than getting shocked
with a long arc of electricity it
actually started emitting plasma out of
the Lego man’s head I could smell the
ozone and if I got close enough I could
see the tiny purple sparks it was really
hard to capture on a regular camera but
we did use a modified GoPro with a zoom
lens added that didn’t have an infrared
filter and we were able to see it a
little bit more strangely through the
little gallium man while it was arcing
plasma like that the actual electrical
discharge was very small touching the
metal rim of the workbench gave me a
huge jolt and caused a spark several
inches long that was very visible if I
touched the gallium Lego man rather than
the really big jolt it was just a pretty
small one similar to when I was putting
my knuckles close to the Bell at the
beginning one of the most popular
projects we have ever had on our channel
is showing how to build a laser blow gun
and we have turned that into a kit that
you can order and if you act quickly you
can still get it in time for Christmas
that kit comes with everything you could
possibly need we have got a glue gun PVC
pipes decals a laser everything that
need for your own backyard adventures so
my initial reaction the second that we
opened those kits was just how much we
provided for you it’s nearly everything
that you need and it’s amazing quality
it’s really fun we didn’t help plan this
out so when we opened it really was just
like us getting the kit for the first
time I was especially impressed that it
comes like with a glue gun and glue
sticks I was not expecting that
everything you need it takes probably
whatever 15 to 30 minutes depending how
quickly you’re working to get your
blowgun up and ready and then maybe a
little bit longer if you’re trying to
fine-tune the laser which it even comes
with everything for that like to zero in
that laser so it’s perfectly accurate it
worked crazy well I also really like the
fact that although it comes with the
supplies and equipment to make the nail
darts to put the paper cone at the back
it’s like the perfect size that you can
use miniature marshmallows and so you
can have like a laser assisted
marshmallow blowgun fight or blow gun
marshmallow Wars in your kitchen or
studio Wow there might still be
marshmallows all over the place possible
baby we’ve got a couple hundred in stock
but we do expect them to go fast so if
you want for yourself for a friend or a
family member now is the time to get it
if you guys decide to go all out and the
dazzle one of these things or just make
it look really really cool we want to
see send us pictures there’s lots of
ways you can decorate you can use paint
you can use tape I guess you could use a
bedazzler is really what gems what is it
puts like rhinestones I don’t know if it
works on PVC but someone should figure
out how to make that work anyway lots of
ways to make this blowgun your own
modifying what we have in the kit very
cool stuff the link for one of these
kits is in the description have fun be
safe build something cool guys that’s it
for today but the fun doesn’t end we’ve
always got more for you see that box up
at the top will take you to our last
video you should go check that out the
other box will show you what YouTube
thinks you should be watching next and
this bomb here in the middle subscribe
to our channel that way you never miss
out on the video don’t forget to ring
that Bell and we’ll see you in the next one talk to you then
from a Van de Graaff generator and if
you let that charge build up what’s it
gonna do when it starts shocking stuff
this is a Van de Graaff generator now
this is not one that we built although
that may be a future project so this is
one that we just bought online and we’re
gonna have some fun experimenting with
it today for those of you who don’t know
a Van de Graaff generator is something
that lets you use static electricity to
build up some surprisingly large
electric charges the construction is
pretty basic let’s go over that first of
all we have this over here this is just
a wheel when we turn this wheel with its
handle over here it twists this smaller
wheel and this smaller wheel is what’s
actually doing the important stuff as
you can see this smaller wheel is on a
gear attached to this white rod in here
when I turn that wheel that white rod
starts spinning attached onto that rod
is this thick rubber band as it twists
that rubber band goes up it’s going past
this right here this is an electrode in
the shape of sort of a comb you can see
that it’s got all of these tiny little
teeth that are metal and it’s just being
held on this plastic sheet and that’s
just to hold it where it’s supposed to
go up here at the top our rubber band
goes around a clear rod and there is a
second comb this comb is attached to
this top piece which is a metal plate
which has this connecting point over the
top that as you can see fits nicely into
this dome shaped bell turning this wheel
and spinning all of the moving pieces in
here starts generating static
electricity with our two combs one of
the top one on the bottom that’s
attached to this Bell all of the
electricity gets built up in this metal
partial sphere it’s not a perfect sphere
but it’s generally ball shaped these
things are really cool because although
they have pretty low current they can
have extremely high voltage these
desktop models can probably generate at
least 100,000 volts so with all of that
the principle is pretty simple you turn
this wheel down here and it generates
static electricity up top which you can
then sometimes direct toward other
things or you can just touch it like
or you can just put your hands near it
like this this is an interesting
phenomenon to try and catch on camera
because it can easily be so quick that
it happens in between the frames of our
camera while filming this it’s maybe one
in ten of the sparks is actually getting
caught on camera which means I just had
shocked my hand quite a bit but that’s
what happens when you’re playing a fan
of graph generator so you’re gonna get
zapped
I can also try and make this sparks jump
from our large ball to this smaller ball
over here I think probably most people
have tried rubbing a balloon in their
hair until it builds up a static charge
to see and thick and stick to the walls
and stuff well we can have a sort of
amplified version of that here just
going to take our balloon we’re gonna
start cranking and see what happens that
was like one rotation how far away I can
get and still how’d it get pulled in
[Music]
the balloon sticks and then once I
discharged it the balloon just dropped
right down one of the best ways to
really show off the effect is to let it
run through hair a little bit and I
don’t have a ton of hair but this should
still be fun to watch it also likes to
jump the bridge through the air into
your hair really easily so quite a big
jolt onto my scalp so you can see how
it’s transferring the sparks over to my
hand it zaps me pretty well at least
sometimes you can see it but there’s
another way you can do this as well and
that’s instead of causing sparks to jump
little by little you can build the
charge up not just in the Bell not just
in this metal Bell but actually in
itself so if I have my hand on the Bell
directly and I’m insulated from the
ground which I’m doing right now by
wearing my high-quality proto putty
shoes seems a very good insulators I am
insulated however the frame of this
bench is not so if I put my hand on here
and turn the wheel a little bit I’ll
start building up a charge that will
then discharge as soon as I touch the
edge of that bench and it can be a big
discharge yeah oh man like you do these
ones right here and you only feel it
about as far as your knuckle but when I
do it like this my body can hold so much
more charge I feel it all the way
through my arm and my whole body jumps
involuntarily now something else I think
is pretty interesting and I discovered
this while playing around with the Van
de Graaff generator earlier today if I
take this powerful magnet and I put it
near the bail I’m now off the ground
again I’m in both of my rubber shoes if
I turn the wheel with the magnet near
the bail there’s no sparking there’s no
shocking and it doesn’t seem like it’s
doing anything at all but if I touch the
metal railing it gives me a jolt
so it’s charging me up the same way is
if I have my hand on the bail by putting
the magnet near the bail so I have not
yet had
to do research into exactly what is
happening but it appears that the
electric field generated by our Van de
Graaff generator is somehow using the
magnetic field to transfer the
electricity into me without having any
sparks that’s pretty cool
I had my cameraman turning the crank and
I was building up so much charge that he
was actually shocking me through my feet
through the proto party shoes into the
floor and so now I’m standing on a
wooden board to see if that offers even
can feel it all my arm hairs they’re
just getting tingly now I’m going to
attack my cameraman well very quickly
building a charge I feel like Thor and I
all right here goes holy cow
what oh my gosh oh that was crazy okay
we’re getting some crazy big shocks by
having my cameraman turn this while I’m
really well insulated so we have this
little gallium metal cast Lego figure
and I want to see if we can shock that
okay so this is kind of weird like if I
go over here on the shelf
I get a giant zap but if I go to the
gallium figure it just makes a hissing
fizzing sound sounds a lot like Tesla
coil so that just zapped me but it’s a
pretty small zap compared to the charge
up for a bit we were trying to grab some
footage of shocking a small gallium
passed Lego man because we thought it
would be fun to make me look like Thor
but we discovered that something about
the gallium is causing some weird things
to happen rather than getting shocked
with a long arc of electricity it
actually started emitting plasma out of
the Lego man’s head I could smell the
ozone and if I got close enough I could
see the tiny purple sparks it was really
hard to capture on a regular camera but
we did use a modified GoPro with a zoom
lens added that didn’t have an infrared
filter and we were able to see it a
little bit more strangely through the
little gallium man while it was arcing
plasma like that the actual electrical
discharge was very small touching the
metal rim of the workbench gave me a
huge jolt and caused a spark several
inches long that was very visible if I
touched the gallium Lego man rather than
the really big jolt it was just a pretty
small one similar to when I was putting
my knuckles close to the Bell at the
beginning one of the most popular
projects we have ever had on our channel
is showing how to build a laser blow gun
and we have turned that into a kit that
you can order and if you act quickly you
can still get it in time for Christmas
that kit comes with everything you could
possibly need we have got a glue gun PVC
pipes decals a laser everything that
need for your own backyard adventures so
my initial reaction the second that we
opened those kits was just how much we
provided for you it’s nearly everything
that you need and it’s amazing quality
it’s really fun we didn’t help plan this
out so when we opened it really was just
like us getting the kit for the first
time I was especially impressed that it
comes like with a glue gun and glue
sticks I was not expecting that
everything you need it takes probably
whatever 15 to 30 minutes depending how
quickly you’re working to get your
blowgun up and ready and then maybe a
little bit longer if you’re trying to
fine-tune the laser which it even comes
with everything for that like to zero in
that laser so it’s perfectly accurate it
worked crazy well I also really like the
fact that although it comes with the
supplies and equipment to make the nail
darts to put the paper cone at the back
it’s like the perfect size that you can
use miniature marshmallows and so you
can have like a laser assisted
marshmallow blowgun fight or blow gun
marshmallow Wars in your kitchen or
studio Wow there might still be
marshmallows all over the place possible
baby we’ve got a couple hundred in stock
but we do expect them to go fast so if
you want for yourself for a friend or a
family member now is the time to get it
if you guys decide to go all out and the
dazzle one of these things or just make
it look really really cool we want to
see send us pictures there’s lots of
ways you can decorate you can use paint
you can use tape I guess you could use a
bedazzler is really what gems what is it
puts like rhinestones I don’t know if it
works on PVC but someone should figure
out how to make that work anyway lots of
ways to make this blowgun your own
modifying what we have in the kit very
cool stuff the link for one of these
kits is in the description have fun be
safe build something cool guys that’s it
for today but the fun doesn’t end we’ve
always got more for you see that box up
at the top will take you to our last
video you should go check that out the
other box will show you what YouTube
thinks you should be watching next and
this bomb here in the middle subscribe
to our channel that way you never miss
out on the video don’t forget to ring
that Bell and we’ll see you in the next one talk to you then
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