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Re: Eye on ions





William Beaty wrote:



Also:

Build a battery-powered ultrasonic humidifier, charge the whole thing to a
high potential (stick it on a VDG dome), then let it spew charged mist.
Will it "rain" on the walls and ceiling? What would happen if you
collected the mist inside a plastic trash can? Or expose the mist-stream
to a + or - high voltage probe-sphere? What happens if two streams of
opposite-polarity mist come together? Vonnegut tornadoes? Or if a (+)
mist stream flows into a (-) mist volume...? Unlike with flows of charged
wind, this would all be directly visible.

...the above is caused by afternoon wooiness and delerious brainstorming
when I should be doing real work!

PS, got the hoses and shower heads, gonna FINALLY make a dangerously large
Kelvin generator this week.


I haven't tried these but a similar demo that can be easily done and students
can figure it out is to blow a stream of soap bubbles next to a Van deGraff.
They are originally attracted to it due to the polar covalent bonds in the
water (and ions flowing in the air?). When the first bubble hits it sends a
mist of negative charged water onto the other bubbles which immediately stop
and reverse direction. This was suggested in The Physics Teacher and works
great with a little practice.