Big Sparks, Little Sparks!

[Arfence]

Freaze a hotdog

[TheMusicman921]

you made me jump when you said no hahah

[MrRupert8754]

how far away can you get them from each other and it still spark ?

[JeffersonLab]

@MrRupert8754 If the air is good and dry, about a foot or so.

[vampkid23]

what would happen if you were to freeze bubbles with liquid nitrogen?

[kittahlova206]

@vampkid23 thats a really good idea now im really curious about that xD

[TheScalyDemon]

What would happen if you did it in a vaccuum chamber? Would it be one continuous spark since there is no air to insulate?

[JeffersonLab]

@TheScalyDemon I think so. You wouldn't actually see a spark since there wouldn't be anything in the vacuum to heat up, but I believe that you would get a continuous discharge.

[MrFloman100]

Luv it. Science is my strong subject

[flowercowable]

Is the reason we can only hear most of the sparks because the camera doesn't have a high enough frame rate to capture the flashes or is there actually no spark?

[JeffersonLab]

@flowercowable No, the sparks are there. We shoot at 29.97 fps, but I doubt the exposure time for a single frame uses that entire window. If a spark happens during a lull, the camera won't pick it up.

[AgnusDei0fire]

little geeky but i loooooooove your channel!! :D

[satsukizama]

Sigh. I wish you were my physics teachers.. it would be more fun and maybe I would actually learn something

[JeffersonLab]

@satsukizama Thanks! But, we do have an advantage of (a) only doing things that we think are interesting and (b) only dealing with a topic for a couple of minutes. Your teacher has a much tougher job.

[satsukizama]

@JeffersonLab lol true, she has 2 deal with crazy children and i guess u dont. Anyway I love your videos

[lorecontreras1]

May

[skygazer6248]

Why are the Van de Graaff generator and grounding dome spherical in shape?

[JeffersonLab]

@skygazer6248 They are spherical to prevent them from leaking charge. If there is a point or a corner, the charge will leak off at that point.

[Arpit4063]

@JeffersonLab leak of charge from corner is called corona discharge??

[JeffersonLab]

@Arpit4063 Yes.

[Almontmarine]

Steve is sooo... scared of Joanna...

[Almontmarine]

Can you use the spark to light up a match?

[JeffersonLab]

@Almontmarine Yes.

[Almontmarine]

@JeffersonLab can you demonstrate?

[JeffersonLab]

@Almontmarine Perhaps in the future.

[Almontmarine]

@Almontmarine Wow, that would be great! Right now i think i should save enough money to buy one of that (and a grounding dome)!

[59Ballons]

What happens if you put one at one end of a room, and the other, at the other end of the room? And what happens if you touch the generator with your hand?

[JeffersonLab]

@59Ballons If the domes are too far apart, the VdG's dome tries to discharge to the most convenient things around. Sometimes it'll arc to its base. Sometimes is just sends little tendrils into the air. You don't get the nice bright sparks like you see between the domes, though.

You can see what happens when the generator is touched in one of our other videos. Look for the one called "Should a Person Touch 200,000 Volts?"

[TheMetalhead01]

now what would happen if you held theme 5 foot from 1 another.

[JeffersonLab]

The charged dome would discharge into the air or to it's base. Because of the size of the domes, we can only get sparks about a foot in length.

[TheMetalhead01]

ohh thank you again man were can i get my hands on 1 of them generaters ohh i have 1 more question what causes they air to look liike it has smoke when i compress it then decompress it rapidly

[JeffersonLab]

We bought ours from Edmund Scientific, although they are available from a number of companies. They are, unfortunately, insanely expensive for what they are.

The white 'smoke' is most likely condensed water vapor. Decompressing air cools it and cold air holds less water vapor than warm air does. If the air gets cold enough, the 'extra' water vapor condenses into small droplets, creating fog. That's my best guess without actually seeing what you're talking about.

[nebonit]

Much more fun to tell someone to put there hand on it and then they charge up and then you poke em

[supersonicstep]

Woah

[IntelligenceQuota]

its like an electrical metronome. :P

[joshthegod9]

this is so scripted

[JeffersonLab]

Yeah, it's scripted. It would be difficult to make these otherwise. Finding a Van de Graaff generator set-up in a room doesn't exactly happen spontaneously...

[AsharyAsh]

I mean explode...

[AsharyAsh]

I tought it was going to exlpode.

[tutorialconr]

Wow! i love you guys more videos plz!

[JeffersonLab]

Thanks! We're working on it!

[tutorialconr]

Welcome =) please never give up

[PsychoSimmy]

Nice show it's cool...Kinda funny too. :D