Supercharging the Fun Fly Stick - Van Der Graaf Generator // Homemade Science with Bruce Yeany

Hello, I'm Bruce Shane and today in HomeAid Science I want to take a look at the FunFly Stick and I want to see if we can get more out of this than the original design calls for. I want to see if we can supercharge this. So let's take a closer look. Now here's the original set. It has the wand and an assortment of materials plus a very nice book to go with it. Now the FunFly Stick is actually a type of Van de Graaff generator but it has this cardboard tube which severely limits the amount of charge that it can collect. Normally a Van de Graaff generator has this large metal dome on top and that's going to collect huge amounts of electrical charges on it allowing us to do all sorts of demonstrations. This type of generator depends on a rubber belt that is stretched between two pulleys that are made of different materials. It's the difference in these materials that remove electrons from the upper dome and cause it to be positively charged. The size of this dome can help determine how large a charge the generator can collect. So what I want to do is try and replace this cardboard tube with a metal container and see if we can get a much higher voltage. I'll start by adding an extension wire onto the electrode that's coming out of the Fly Stick. Now this wire was insulated but I removed about an inch of insulation from this end. Now I'm simply going to bend it under the electrode. That will be enough to hold it in place. This is what it looks like. Next I'll cover that bare wire and the electrode with black electrical tape. That'll insulate it. I don't want it touching the outside of the metal can. On the opposite end I stripped off about four inches of insulation. It's going to give me these long metal strands and that's going to ensure that it makes contact on the inside. Now the opening of this can is not quite big enough to fit over the end of the Fly Stick so I'm going to make some cuts in it. A couple more here. The final step is to take that wire and start by putting it inside the can. There we go. Now I want to take the front Fly Stick and simply turn and push so that I insert part of it into the can itself. I think we're ready. Now that we've added the collection dome let's see if we can get a spark. Now some of the sparks are about one inch long and that's estimated to be about 30,000 volts. Now that we have a higher voltage let's try some experiments with it. This first one's called roll the can. Nothing. All right let's turn it on. As the cans get near each other I can actually see a spark. The Fly Stick is positively charged and the can is neutral but it's attracted to the generator but once it touches it gives up electrons, becomes positively charged and is then repelled by it. When it touches the hand it gains electrons so once again it's attracted to the Fly Stick. All right that's a lot of fun. Now let's try this piece. This is an induction motor so let's see what happens with this. The balls turning towards the generator are either neutral or negatively charged. They're attracted to it but once they get near the generator they give up electrons, become positively charged and are then repelled by it. All right this next piece is called a Franklin Bell and it's simply a soda can which has a wire going up and a bell. Now let's try this and see what happens. This piece was named after Ben Franklin who invented a similar design which demonstrated static charges from a variety of sources. It works because the bell alternates from being positively charged and negatively charged which is then attracted and repelled by the generator. All right well there's the Franklin Bell. How about if we put some cupcake tins, the aluminum wrappers for cupcakes, on top of here. Now let's turn this on and see what happens. I'm going to stand up here. With the generator on the plates become positively charged and since positive charges repel other positive charges it's this force that's lifting the plates off one at a time. Now with the original setup in the Funfly Stick you could light up a small neon light with it but with this collector added to it and a much higher voltage we can actually light up a four foot fluorescent tube. So let me turn out the lights and let's see what that looks like. Now we don't get a steady stream of light but a series of flashes as the generator builds up a charge and then discharges when it gets near the tube. That discharge causes the gases inside to go through the same series of steps that give off light when the light's turned on. Now I have a smaller version up here which is a lantern fluorescent light. Let's try this bulb. All right now the next demonstration is actually one of my favorites. It's called Volta's Hailstorm. Now let's take a closer look at it. Now the pieces for this start with a cut off soda bottle. On either end we have cds that were covered with aluminum foil. It's held together with a rubber band. On the one end we have a soda bottle and inside we have these little foam balls which are covered with graphite. Now watch what happens. I'm always amazed by this demonstration. Now for the grand finale I always like to have somebody's hair stand up on end but this just isn't strong enough for a human but if we get a substitute that's going to help us out here and her name is Barbie, well let's see what happens if we stick Barbie on top of this collector. Barbie and the generator both start out neutral but let's turn it on and see what happens. The fly stick removes extra electrons from Barbie's head and hair making them positively charged so they repel each other and stand up on end. The positive charges on the hairs are actually attracted to the negative charges on my hand. Well there it is our hair raising experience. Now it'll stay up like this for a few moments unless I touch the can and that'll equal out the charge. Let's try it and down it goes. Well there it is my example of the supercharged fun fly stick. If you have one of these yourself consider adding a can to it and you'll get more out of it. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this video and if you did come back and see me again. Okay, bye.