Van Der Graaf Generator Blog - Jordyn

Van Der Graaf Generator

The Van Der Graaf Generator is a machine that has a big aluminum ball on top of it and has a tube below it, that contains a rubber belt that when the machine is turned on it spins around. This movement causes the electrons to move around. With hands on the ball, the electrons then go into the persons hand. That then causes tingling. If you take one hand off of it and touch something metal or another persons hand you will feel a shock.

What I Saw:

One of the first things we did was Mr. Brown got his dead cat (the fur of course) and placed it on the generator. The electricity went through it and as that happened the ends of the fur rose along with the hair.

When a humans hand were put on the generator that persons hair was soon rising up.

That is what the Van Der Graaf Generator looks like. As the person touching the generator or holding hands with someone touching it, touches a sink or something metal, the persons hair for that moment goes down and back up when the person stops touching the metal object.

What Experiments:

We did a few different experiments that I briefly  descried earlier. One was using rice krispys into a plastic bag, then when put on the generator they tried to get away from from each other making them go all around in the bag. Another one was the Cat Fur one which I explained earlier, then we had a student put their hands on it making their hair go up. After that we did the same thing with a student but then we added them holding hands which made the electricity go through all three people. Then Mr. Brown told the person to touch the sink causing a shock to go through all three of the people. After that we started with one person touching the generator with one person then touching the other persons hand also creating a shock. For all of the experiments the people were all standing on Styrofoam.  

What They Proved:

These experiments proved how amazing electricity really is. It proved the fact that static electricity is very interesting in how things react to it. Like the hair going up. It also proved how even hair on a human is affected when the persons hand is put onto the generator.