Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I built the experiment but i just cant get it to spark and ive used a variety of probes and seeled up al the leaks but i dont have any more ideas of what to do.

Hello fred97,

I haven't built a Kelvin water dropper, but I have worked with electrostatic devices in other contexts, so here are a few ideas from my experience.

I think the most important issue in getting it to work is to be sure that each bucket and its attached inducer are connected together, and to be sure that they are well insulated from everything else. The electric charge accumulates slowly, so if there is any pathway for the charge to leak away, it will.

Did you build your apparatus using PVC pipes? PVC is a good insulator so long as it is clean and dry. Be sure it's clean and dry. Even dry wood will not be nearly as good an insulator.

If the air around your apparatus is humid, it can drain off the electric charge. Be sure your environment is completely dry.

Make your spark gap very small to start with. If you can get it to spark, then you can experiment with what sort of changes in the apparatus will give you a bigger spark.

If you continue to have no spark you could post some pictures of your setup and maybe some more comments would come to mind.

Good luck, WW

Thank you so much i will try that soon and post those pictures. i did make it out of pvc pipes and ive been doing it in my garage so that could be it but i didnt think it woud matter because its winter and im in new enland so i figured that would be ok cuz it is cold and dry out. thxa again -- fred97

fred97,

I agree that a garage in winter should be dry enough. When I can see your pictures, I will study them to look for any problem.

WW

alright thx i will try to put them up today or tomorrow.


fred