Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My son and his friends have decided to to this science fair project:

http://www.all-science-fair-projects.co ... 92_57.html

Does he have to have a 50KV power supply or can he use a 10 KV or 12 Kv? Any thoughts on how to pair down the experiment to use a lower voltage source? And where on earth could we get a source? Looks like it needs to be variable as he needs to test different voltages.

Now that they have been approved, we are finding it lacking in directions.

Like what gauge wire to use.

Please help. We are very annoyed at this whole thing now. Thought that they had it under control,but it looks like we parents will have to step in. I truly wish that if the school requires them to do projects, they would guide them better instead of making it all n the parents

Any advice welcome...

-- frustrated mom

Hi Lorismith68,

I can appreciate your frustration! The directions for the project you linked to do seem unclear.

I don't want to add further to your frustration, but this looks like a rather complicated, and--to be completely honest--somewhat dangerous project. The Biefeld-Brown effect requires strong electrical potential gradients, so I don't think that scaling down the voltage of the power supply will work. High voltage power supplies are expensive and need to be used by someone who has experience working with high voltages.

If it's not too late in the game, I would consider encouraging your child to switch projects. Or, if that is not possible, try to find someone local who has experience working with high voltage power supplies. It would make me much more comfortable if you had someone with experience who could supervise the project in person.

The following Science Buddies page has a list of 13 electronics & electricity-related science fair projects that are of the appropriate difficulty for high school; perhaps one of these will interest your child.
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... iff9,0,428

Science Buddies has other projects in other areas of science that may also be appropriate and interesting. You can browse these ideas here:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... llprojects
Projects classified as "advanced" are usually appropriate for high school students.