Re: Van de Graaff

[Ron Curtin <curtin@oven.ccds.charlotte.nc.us>]

On Mon, 22 Apr 1996, Violeta Grigorescu Tanase wrote:

> I am about to do the Van de Graaff generator demo.  I have tried it before
> with some smaller devices and I did not have much success.  Now I have a
> generator with a rather large sphere. A student of mine told me that it
> works better when one has hair jelly on his/her hair.  Is it true?  How
> about the length of time a person needs to wait in order to get discharged.
>  (!!)  Would shoes with rubber soles provide enough insulation? 
> ..........Well, if I don't see anything signed by me anymore, you'll know
> that I didn't do it right. ;-) 
> Cheers! 
> Violeta 
I have had some good success with this demonstration over the years with 
a fairly large sphere.  Lately, unfortunately, even though the student is 
standing on a good insulator and the base of the generator is grounded, 
they sometimes get an uncomfortable spark while their hands are on the 
sphere.  Needless to say, this kind of discourages others from trying 
it.  Any ideas what I am doing wrong?