Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I'm looking for the name for what I can only describe as two metal rods with an arc of electricity jumping between them I am wanting to know what it is called and where I could go to find out how to make something like that with materials found around the house.

it is called a jacob's ladder and I managed to find it thank you anyway

Please be very, very careful if you build one. They use high voltage and are dangerous. This is (in my opinion) unsuitable for a science project due to the danger.


Louise

As an alternative you might consider researching about Van de Graaff generators. Here's a link to a website that offers a variety of topics on this subject.

http://amasci.com/emotor/vdg.html


Sincerely,
Janelle

Louise wrote:Please be very, very careful if you build one. They use high voltage and are dangerous. This is (in my opinion) unsuitable for a science project due to the danger.


Louise

Yes I agree. I do not think it is prudent to work on these types of devices for a science project idea.

Currents above 200 mili-amps is fatal to the human body.
According to the website: http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~p616 ... rrent.html
the resistance (point to point) on a human body varies widely and can range as low as 100 ohms. This translate to the fact that working with DC voltages above 20V may be potentially harmful to your body.

Furthermore according to this website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark_gap# ... ertainment
air will break down (and thus cause sparks to jump) at around 24kilo-Volts/inch. Thus in order for you to show such a phenomenon as in the jacobs ladder or even the Van De Graaf genererator, electric potential in the range of ten-of-thousand volts need to be generated.

So again researching in this field for a science project may not be the best idea.

ghariman wrote:

Louise wrote:Please be very, very careful if you build one. They use high voltage and are dangerous. This is (in my opinion) unsuitable for a science project due to the danger.


Louise

Yes I agree. I do not think it is prudent to work on these types of devices for a science project idea.

Currents above 200 mili-amps is fatal to the human body.
According to the website: http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~p616 ... rrent.html
the resistance (point to point) on a human body varies widely and can range as low as 100 ohms. This translate to the fact that working with DC voltages above 20V may be potentially harmful to your body.

Furthermore according to this website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark_gap# ... ertainment
air will break down (and thus cause sparks to jump) at around 24kilo-Volts/inch. Thus in order for you to show such a phenomenon as in the jacobs ladder or even the Van De Graaf genererator, electric potential in the range of ten-of-thousand volts need to be generated.

So again researching in this field for a science project may not be the best idea.

Just wanted to clarify my last posting. I didn't want to discourage students to do research in the electricty field, and the Van de Graaf may be an okay experiment. But whenever dealing with the construction/testing of devices that generate very high voltages please make sure to double check things to ensure that along with that high voltage there doesn't exist a potential for high current to flow.

Take all the pre-cautions you need to.