Science time with P-Daddi: Static Electricity!

Below is a homemade battery, it's pretty cool and you can get quite a shock 

if you touch the top and bottom with a wire!

You may ask, "How does you make one?"
We will get to that in due time! First though, a basic understanding of static electricity. Static electricity is the electricity that gathers on the surface of an object.
What happens is when an nonconductive object is polarized [such as glass, amber, fleece, soft fabrics. etc.], the free electrons [ie. electrons not tied up in molecular bonds] gather at the surface. when the object sits alone, the charge stays in the same general area, hence the name 'static' electricity. When the particular spot is brought close to an unpolarized object, a conductor, or an object with an opposite charge [meaning it has a bunch of free protons at the surface], the electrons 'jump' to the other object, creating what we know as an ark of electricity. Static electricity is literally everywhere, from the motherboard of your phone to the carts in Target to the clothes on your back. The reason humans have trouble harnessing static electricity is because it has a very high amperage but a very low voltage, meaning it will burn and fry electronics, but it won't charge your cellular device much... well not yet at least! To make one, follow these steps: http://www.alaska.net/~natnkell/leyden.htm


{fun fact: I once did an experiment with a few of my friends using electricity. The final goal was to transmit a charge over a distance of 2 meters using air as our medium and light up an LED lightbulb at the other end. We succeeded in transmitting the electricity, but couldn't figure out why the light bulb would only barely glow. Turns out, in not having a ground wire at the receiving end, we only succeeded in sending a static displacement, which eventually fried the lightbulb and the whole circuit it was on before we figured out what was wrong. You can read about our specific try at http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/dec/04/germantown-students-display-math-and-science-in/?partner=RSS and our idea of "inductive coupling" [taken from Edison himself] at http://www.cs.unca.edu/~bruce/Spring07/373/RFIDCoupling.ppt}

Email me at at this address for suggestions or if you want to hear more!

And as always, have fun making science!