Van de Graaff Confetti Explosion

What happens when a bunch of confetti is placed on the dome of a Van de Graaff generator? [Closed Captioned]

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• van
• de
• graaff
• generator
• static
• electricity
• like
• charges
• repel
• confetti
• fountain
• frostbite
• theater
• jlab
• jefferson
• lab

[upstateNYcuties]

So, how was the cleanup?

[JeffersonLab]

@upstateNYcuties Annoying. Some of the confetti got stuck on the ceiling and slowly rained down over the course of a week.

[Almontmarine]

Guess you kinda made a great mess. And did Steve really eat one?

[JeffersonLab]

@Almontmarine Yeah, this was one of the messier ones we've done. One actually did go into Steve's mouth.

[moh199702]

Why do u guys keep touching it with the metal rod

[JeffersonLab]

@moh199702 We aren't actually touching the dome with the nails, we're just pointing the nails at the dome. We're doing this to remove some of the charge from the dome. The paper disks would eventually form little 'fingers' rather than fly off. You can see them doing this if you watch the video carefully. By removing some of the charge, these structures would fall apart and the disks would begin to fly off again.

[LoganVideo12TV]

I wish i had some liquid nitrogen!

[Teankun]

You can also do it with styrofoan peanuts

[Connor8822]

Those are called Chads :D

[pictureperfect971]

Thanks, this was so helpful for one of my Biology projects:-) Great video, love you guys, and super cool experiment!!

[MegaTories]

@JeffersonLab I appreciate you were talking about upper bounds, but the motor's low power factor may reduce this yet further. Also, for low enough power factor, the maximum mains power draw may not be at full motor power, as adding series resistance can increase the in-phase current component.

[JPortfolio]

awesome application!