Hi Gang! This neat electrostatic toy is commonly called
a ball cyclotron, and it's very easy to make.
Here I'm powering it using a Wimshurst machine.
How does it work? These aluminum strips are negatively charged,
and these strips are positively charged. When a ball is close to,
or touching one of the strips, the ball is charged by the strip,
negatively charged in this case.
The result is that the strip and the ball both have the same charge,
and like-charges repel each other. So the ball is repelled away from the strip
in this direction.
Meanwhile, the next strip in that direction has the opposite
charge, positive charge in this case.
Unlike-charges attract each other, so the strip attracts the ball to it.
But when the ball gets close enough, it gets charged by that strip with the same
charge as the strip, a positive charge in this case.
Since like charges repel each other, you'd think that the ball would be repelled
back this way, but the ball has enough momentum
to keep it moving to the other side of the strip.
And now it's repelled in this direction.
The now positively charged ball then approaches the next strip
which is negatively charged, and again,
since unlike-charges attract, it's attracted to that strip.
The ball again gets negatively charged, and has enough momentum to get to the other
side of the strip where it's repelled again,
and so on.
It's fairly quick and easy to make and here's how.
Start with a non-metalic bowl.
Cut three thin strips out of kitchen aluminum foil.
One long one will go across the entire bowl. Tape it down, but cover as little of the foil
as possible. Cut one end short,
leaving the other end longer for connecting to later.
Notice I've cut the strip so that it's narrower in the middle.
The other two strips are cut rounded at one end.
Tape those into the bowl too, again with the tape covering as little foil
as possible. The rounded ends should be in the bowl,
and not too close to the first strip. The other ends should extend out over the
edge of the bowl. Those two strips need to be electrically connected
together somehow. To do that,
tape another strip of foil to both of the ends of those two strips.
But make sure you tape both ends such that you have aluminum touching aluminum.
To make sure that strip doesn't touch this one,
I tape it down to the side of the bowl. Notice that it's on the opposite side
from the where the first strip extends past the bowl.
Done!
But before I can test it, I'll need some balls. The balls have to have an electrically conductive
surface, but should also be very lightweight
if it's going to powered by a Wimshurst machine, which isn't very powerful.
So I have this ping pong ball which I cover in aluminum foil,
being careful to make it as smooth as possible. It's also preferable that there's no tape
on it. As much as possible,
you want one continuous electrically conductive surface.
Now to try it out. Here I have a Wimshurst machine
and some wires with alligator clips on their ends.
I connect one end of one wire to one side of the Wimshurst machine's spark
gap, and the other end to the two shorter strips,
the ones that are connected together. Then I connect one end of another wire
to the other side of the Wimshurst machine's spark gap,
and the other end to the long strip.
I put in one ball, being careful to put it on one of the strips,
and start cranking the Wimshurst machine. The ball starts to move.
It can move in any direction, and gets going quite fast.
Next I start with two balls. If the balls are initially touching then they
may not get going, or it may take a while.
If your bowl is too small, you may not be able to get two balls to work
at all.
For an improvement I have some electrically conductive nickel
paint which I spray on some balls.
Since they're smoother, these balls work a little better.
If you have aluminum tape, which you can get at most hardware stores,
then you can use that instead of taping aluminum foil on,
like I showed earlier. It's much easier to make this way.
So I connect that one up to the Wimshurst machine.
And here's that one in action with a nickel coated ball.
An aluminum foil covered works well too. But two nickel coated balls really get going!
Well thanks for watching!
See my youtube channel, rimstarorg for more neat video like this.
That includes one on how to make a corona motor,
another neat electrostatic machine. One on how to make your own small Wimshurst
machine using CDs. And for variety, one on how nuclear fusion
works in the sun.
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See you soon!