How this works is the bottom produces an electric charge by friction or high voltage. It has a rubber belt that in the pole part and two plastic rollers that helps with the friction to produce a static electric at the top metal ball.
Many a visitor to science museums has encountered a Van de Graaff generator. These contraptions are staples of hands-on demonstrations in labs and at science fairs, delighting audiences by producing “lightning”, or making participants’ hair stand on end when they touch the smooth spherical surface of the device’s trademark hollow metal globe.
My project relates to social studies because lightning like the Van de Graaff has a lot of voltages. Lightning strikes and produces electricity. Anything to do with weather can hurt our planet and same with lightning and thunder storms. They could damage our world. I can also relate this to Benjamin Franklin when he studies lightning by flying a kite in a thunder storm.
Lightning, like the Van de Graaff Generator, has a base. The lightning's base is the ground just as the generator’s bast is the bottom and the pole. Lightning jumps from cloud to cloud and that is how it can retain its electricity. The Van de Graaff too has multiple generators to swap electricity with. It can keep electricity going between two metal tops.
Beaty, Bill. In this photograph, a man placed his hands on the metal ball on the top of the Van de Graaff Generator causing his hair to stick up. Digital image. Van De Graaff Electrostatic Generator Page. N.p., 16 May 2005. Web.
Van De Graaff Generator. Digital image. PHOTOZO. VBulletin, Oct. 2009. Web.
Robert J. Van de Graaff invented this generator. This was a huge accomplishment and he goes down in history.
The Van de Graff is an electrostatic generator which uses a moving belt to accumulate very high voltages on a hollow metal globe on the top of the stand. It was invented by American physicist Robert J. Van de Graaff in 1929. The potential difference achieved in modern Van de Graaff generators can reach 5 megavolts. The Van de Graaff generator can be thought of as a constant-current source connected in parallel with a capacitor and a very large electrical resistance, so it can produce a visible electrical discharge to a nearby grounding surface which can potentially cause a "spark" depending on the voltage.
Electricity has helped humans immensely. In the old days, they would use fire for light but now, we have the luxury of just flipping a switch and viola! There is light! Electricity has made life much easier for us and it has helped us accomplish things that we could never do alone: such as air conditioning, refridgerator, microwave, transportation, and other things having to do with electricity. A lot of our necesities now are electricity powered. Without electricity, we would travel by foot, we wouldn't be able to keep our food fresh through the means of a fridge, we wouldn't be able to communicate with others with a phone, and I definetelty would not be able to do my AMAZING PBL without electricity. We honestly would not be able to live if the entire world's electricity automatically shuts down. I know I wouldnt!
Segrè, Emilio. Van de graaff generator shoot in Robert J. Van de Graaff (left) poses with his electrostatic generator and his former Princeton mentor who helped him invent it, Karl T. Compton, MIT president, shortly after his demonstration at the APS meeting in 1931 Boston. Digital image. Jemison Land & Cattle Company. MIT Museum and Smithsonian Institution, AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, 2011. Web.