10-20KV from running water, can you explain this?

[Marks256]

Levitating a piece of graphite over strong magnets is pretty simple, not many people even know it's possible.

Well i didn't...

 

[Sceadwian]

**broken link removed**

I should dig around at work, we have some 8 inch by 2 foot graphite slabs they used to use for anodes.

 

[audioguru]

Make huge sparks that are blinding! With so much energy that they are deafening. Then post their video.

 

[Sceadwian]

The only real problem with harnessing that kind of high voltage source is the large amount of time required and the very high isolation requirements.

 

[Marks256]

**broken link removed**

I should dig around at work, we have some 8 inch by 2 foot graphite slabs they used to use for anodes.

Wow. I thought you were joking! How does that work?

 

[Sceadwian]

Wiki is a wonderful thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamagnetic_levitation

I really should look for that anode material too. I was amazed when I asked my boss what it was I was moving one day and he said it was a graphite anode, it's weird realizing you're holding like 20+lbs of solid pencil lead that's close to an inch thick. I just never really though of pencil lead on that kind of scale before.

 

[Firnagzen]

Um, yes. And if you have a chunk that big, goodness knows how big a magnet you'd need to levitate it. I can imagine a massive 1 foot cube NiB super magnet that crashes computers in the entire block if you move it a centimetre or two... And probably can't be transported since it sticks to EVERYTHING that's iron or steel.

Have a look around scitoys.com. They have some excellent diamagnetic kits.

And yes, the device IS real, I made it once, it's called Kelvin's thunderstorm.

Ps. Anode? As in electrolysis of molten metal? Cool.

 

[Sceadwian]

In my case you wouldn't levitate the graphite, you'd levitate the magnet.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

In my case you wouldn't levitate the graphite, you'd levitate the magnet.

 

[Firnagzen]

Oh. *Smacks head*

But then, in the first place, you were talking about levitating the graphite.

 

[Alex_rcpilot]

Interesting. I don't understand what the professor said between "So this's a power supply. There must be energy coming from somewhere." and "I will demonstrate it today and I'll come back to it later." Sounds like he's leaving an assignment. Could someone please transcribe this part for me please? Thanks.

 

[ThermalRunaway]

He was leaving an assignment. As part of the assignment, the students were asked to explain what was happening in the experiment.

Brian

 

[Alex_rcpilot]

Thanks. Couldn't quite figure what a few words were. He had an accent. It was like neither British nor American. And I'm more used to U.S accent.

I kinda like the concept of building this generator, the magnifing mechanism is cool.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I kinda like the concept of building this generator, the magnifing mechanism is cool.

Get a plastic rod, and rub it with a cloth, same thing - but static electricity isn't much good for anything.

Or for a FAR better method, build a Van De Graaf generator, works much better than the silly buckets, but still no good for anything (but great fun!).

 

[Alex_rcpilot]

Yup! Van De Graaf generator is so classic. Anyway, static is static. It doesn't turn up as useful as current.