Robert Jemison Van de Graaff (December 20, 1901 – January 16, 1967) was an American physicist, noted for his design and construction of high-voltage Van de Graaff generators. The bulk of his career was spent in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Today I got my first accidental shock when I touched a Van de Graaff generator in my physics class after it had been on for a while and after it had built up charge. I wasn't thinking at the time and didn't realize that I should have put my hand on the V.D.G.G. before it turned on so it couldn't...
I don't quite understand the behavior of a couple of objects when they are placed in close contact with a VDG generator. When a piece of paper is positioned near the generator, why is it immediately "plastered" to the sphere's side while a piece of aluminum is drawn to the side but then repels...
I am having a difficulty understanding how the van de Graaff generator works. Especially with the charge configuration diagrams. Can anyone help to clear the steps involved with the charge generation process?
a few questions:
1. in van de graaff generator, is the sphere positive?
2. what will happen if we shorten the rubber band conveyor? to make the generator smaller and portable.
3. why does it maintain constant current when connected to a load? why doesn't the current decrease?
I would appreciate help with this problem:
If a Van de Graaff generator is charged to 50,000 volts, how much
energy does it take to add an additional electron to the charge on the
sphere? (I know that the charge on an electron is -1.6 x 10^-19 C)
Thanks
Umhh.. I'm a pretty newbie on this.. But I'm trying to build a working Vandegraaf generator from legos.
So, the basic idea is that I build high pipe from legos, and then use lego-motor which makes two rods rotate. The second rod is on the top and the second one is on the bottom. They're covered...