How a Van de Graaff Generator Works

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Күн бұрын

Detailed explanation down to the electrons and protons on how a Van de Graaff generator works. Includes the triboelectric effect between the rollers and belt, corona discharge and photoelectric effect between the belt and brushes/combs, and Faraday ice pail effect at the top dome/bowl. Shows how arcing/sparks happen and how strong electric fields contribute to creating ions and plasma for making air gaps electrically conductive.
This video has correct English captions. Click on the CC button at the bottom of the video to see them.
See also, Triboelectric effect/series or triboelectricity:
• Triboelectric effect/s...
How to Make/Build a Van de Graaff Generator Part 1 (Homemade/DIY):
• How to Make/Build a Va...
Magnetic field using horseshoe magnet, keeper and iron filings:
• Magnetic Fields, Keepe...
I purchased the big and small Van de Graaff generators from Information Unlimited many years ago:
amazing1.com
The big one is made and also sold by Science First:
www.sciencefirst.com
I don't see it any more on their website but they have others. They also sell spare belts but don't say what they're made of.
To see how to make your own Van de Graaff generator:
rimstar.org/equip/build_make_v...
Follow me on Twitter:
#!/RimStarz
rimstar.org

Пікірлер: 550

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. It was a lot of work so your feedback is appreciated. -Steve

@rogueart7706 4 жыл бұрын

Excellent video! You are the only person on KZfaq who actually explains this. Thanks a bunch!!

@6123ish 4 жыл бұрын

Absolutely agree with you. I have watched many videos about this topic, no one can explain how the positive charges accumulate on the outer surface of the belt, but he did.

@josephjoe9525 2 жыл бұрын

Finally, a person who explains this in detail! I don't get why other youtubers explain the Van de Graaff generator as a machine that simply collects electrons and they leave at that explanation, which is vague and does not really makes sense.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

I'm glad my presentation helps! Thanks for letting me know.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

You're welcome. And thanks for you generous feedback. I'm kind of fond of this one myself but it's reassuring to hear it from others.

@Carlos2312 11 жыл бұрын

Just discovered you channel. I'm a fourth semester electric engineering student from Venezuela and this is just breathtaking for me. Thank you for the videos!

@ajanki34 11 жыл бұрын

I have to agree with everyone - your explanation of how the charges move and where they're coming form and going to is perfect. This video needs to be made into a section in a physics or an electrical engineering text book, seriously. Thank you for laying it out. Your video is in my play list. I'm going to make a Van De Graaff generator too.

@RimstarOrg 10 жыл бұрын

I'm glad you liked it, thanks. And welcome to interacting on KZfaq.

@mrbhave 10 жыл бұрын

If you're not an educator by trade, you have certainly earned this educator's respect. Very well done.

@RimstarOrg 10 жыл бұрын

Thanks. That's a big complement indeed. I spent 13 years traveling around the world teaching for a software company, I currently teach a few times a year for an adult education program, and have done other teaching and course development over the years. I can't seem to stop myself. :)

@mrbhave 10 жыл бұрын

It's an insidious passion of mine, too, friend. Learn something new everyday, I say. It keeps Alzheimer's and boredom at bay.

@RimstarOrg 12 жыл бұрын

Wow! You're welcome! I'm delighted you liked it so much. And thanks for saying so.

@sdilarasenel 3 жыл бұрын

To understand Van de Graff Generator, I watched a lot of videos and this one was the most informative and useful one for me. Thank you for your effort! :)👏

@betatester03 4 жыл бұрын

Wow, this was so much more informative than I expected from a KZfaq video. Excellent video!

@RimstarOrg 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks. It's a lot of fun (but also a huge amount of work) making these detailed ones. Two others which I'm proud of are How a Crystal Radio Works kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ZpOAg8SjuNPbpHk.html and How a Wimshurst Machine Works kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pKdklKaVmteqh6c.html

@learnerrahat5320 2 жыл бұрын

@@RimstarOrg you didnt leave a single little question. every small details was explained. nce work. thanks.

@davef5208 2 жыл бұрын

You explain it much better than Plasma Channel

@deepshabad 6 жыл бұрын

This is the best video I have seen for some one who wants to understand the Van De Graaff generator. Thanks Rimstar.

@bsshabssha 3 жыл бұрын

Great Great Great. Thanks. First time in my life to understand clear easy I try many channels at you youtube but you are the best

@FANBASEALPHA2 11 жыл бұрын

This is just simply an excellent description. A comprehensive class unto itself. The best on the internet. Thanks for your efforts.

@felixmeyer1972 Жыл бұрын

Das ist eine gute "How to"-Anleitung. Interessant war die Verwendung von Isolierband für den Antriebsriemen und wie man es auf die Rollen legt. Danke für die Zeit und Mühe, diese Videos zu machen. Es hilft vielen Menschen und inspiriert sie, etwas aufzubauen.

@reverseengineering1931 5 ай бұрын

Best video to clarify all doubts about Faraday cage etc.

@imanultrastarwarrior801 7 жыл бұрын

I gotta say you really did well on explaining this device, and even the effects that happen on the machine

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Thanks! And thanks for the feedback. It's good to know the explanation works.

@WhakyD 8 жыл бұрын

Going to have to watch this many times. Very detailed. Thanks!

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

You're welcome. I'm glad you like the videos. Thanks for watching them!

@RimstarOrg 12 жыл бұрын

That's a perfectly reasonable question. A big use for them in the past was for generating high voltages, in the millions of volts, for particle accelerators for doing science experiments. I don't know if any particle accelerators still use them. These days they're mostly used in classrooms for teaching about electrostatics or by hobbyists who just like to play around with high voltages. Science museums also use them for demonstrating electrostatic phenomenon.

@darkcnotion 4 жыл бұрын

Best explanation and the questions give better insight, thanks

@georgehayes1054 6 жыл бұрын

I searched hours for this explanation.. THANK YOU

@taquenos 8 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the video, it's the best explanation I found on Van Der Graaf generator, now I can build my own knowing how it works and why.

@cynthiasathees9220 11 жыл бұрын

your video is amazing it really helped to understand what a van de graaf genarator is

@ishitasagar8909 11 жыл бұрын

The triboelectric effect's video really helped.. Thanks a lot for helping and clearing my doubts :)

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

I'm glad to hear it. I try to leave nothing to the imagination so maybe that's why my explanation works for you. Thanks for the feedback.

@tiarne_i_think7537 6 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much! This has helped my physics revision improve SO WELL x

@poojakulkarni9175 9 жыл бұрын

its the best video on van de graaff generator..thanks for uploading it

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Yes, by sharper surface I mean smaller in diameter. Assuming 79kv between two domes, the smallest diameter dome has the stronger electric field around it. The air molecules will be repelled from the smaller diameter one, and be attracted to the larger diameter one. And you're welcome. Glad I can help.

@RimstarOrg 12 жыл бұрын

Thanks. I tried to make it as complete as I could for the popular types of Van de Graaffs at least.

@garyscott5510 5 жыл бұрын

Comprehensive video! Thank you for making it

@catherinefei6629 7 жыл бұрын

Such a nice video to study for Physics Exam!! Thank you!

@sipos66 11 жыл бұрын

Very informative. I wondered how they worked. I just wanted to see how the dome was constructed and attached to the circuit. Thanks.

@50shadesofmycow 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much for all the information! Helped me understand how to build my future Van de Graaff generator! (Already ordered the parts)

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Thanks. The section explaining how the Faraday cage works is a little contentious since I wasn't using the standard approach to explaining it with just fields. But I really wanted to do it at the electron and proton level; more tangible, and also consistent with the rest of it. Have fun making your Van de Graaff generator. Be sure and check out my videos on that topic and ask questions if you run into problems.

@SalsaKingoftheApes 7 ай бұрын

Excellent explanation

@pedropalhari7849 5 жыл бұрын

even though I do not know English, the video is so didactic that I understood, thank you very much!!! from Brazil, translated by google translate hehehe

@bobthetiger11 12 жыл бұрын

AMAZING!!!!! BEST EXPLANATION I HAVE SEEN!!!! THANKS SO MUCH!!

@sumankanta5750 3 жыл бұрын

Wonderful explanation

@Jeplans 8 жыл бұрын

Great stuff, I always enjoy your videos.

@daytonharmon94 12 жыл бұрын

Wow this is an amazing video. I love learning things like this thank you so much for helping me understand better

@Crazybones111LIVE 11 жыл бұрын

Very clear, nice and informative. Helps allot!

@RimstarOrg 12 жыл бұрын

Oh good. I wasn't sure I'd understood your question correctly. Thanks for letting me know.

@nguyenthanhat3547 11 жыл бұрын

my bad at english and your good at presentation make my mind blow :)) ho ho ho thank you. Such a good guy. Spend a lot of his time to help people :D

@wallowood 12 жыл бұрын

So informative and visual. Thank you so much.

@yellow6ird 9 жыл бұрын

Awesome awesome video, thank you so much! Answered a lot of my questions I couldn't gets my heads around!

@Pituophis666 11 жыл бұрын

Excellent explanation, thank you.

@JamHir01 10 жыл бұрын

It's my first time to log-in my account to KZfaq. To like and comment to your video. Very informative, thank you very much! :)

@quantum-inc 5 жыл бұрын

Nice job , good explanation , a lot going on there

@7beers 10 жыл бұрын

Superbly done.

@dhanunjaynaidu2900 4 жыл бұрын

It's great explanation 👍

@sabitkondakc9147 8 жыл бұрын

That was so informative thanks for sharing.

@jibin180 3 жыл бұрын

Wonderfull explanation... Thankz a lot..

@antoniobellini7465 3 жыл бұрын

Great an complete explanation! Thanks a lot.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Yes, the effect only charges the inner side of the belt. But the main reason is that the charge on the inner side of the belt is spread out over the larger inner area of the belt. The roller, however, has a smaller surface area and so the charge is more compact, the voltage is higher. So we use that higher voltage to pull more charge onto the outer surface of the belt. As a result, the outer surface of the belt has more charge than the inner surface. It's that larger charge that we're after.

@HoorGuvLabs 2 жыл бұрын

Man's replaying to comments 10 years later

@h7opolo Жыл бұрын

12 years later, too.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Thanks. I'm glad to hear it helped.

@the27club. 3 жыл бұрын

Great explanation 👍

@bmzaron713 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks a lot for the video and the detail

@squeaksallan8195 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for good clear information.

@egr8735 10 жыл бұрын

Thanks! During the last days I have been trying to make my own generator without success. Your video helps me a lot to see why my attempt didn't work. Now I *finally* understand why there is some charge accumulation at all (ie, which is the origin of the first charge gradient).

@RimstarOrg 10 жыл бұрын

Glad to hear it helps! Know how it works makes all the difference between engineering and guesswork. Let us know how it goes.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

You're welcome! I'm sure the little ones will be delighted. Have fun!

@chemistkrn 11 жыл бұрын

Thank you ... The Video is much informative and helpful..

@deatheatertarik8903 5 жыл бұрын

that's amazing thank you so much for the video, it is a good explanation going into details. god bless you man

@littleBodyguard 8 жыл бұрын

Great video. keep up the good work.

@MrJamaal11 11 жыл бұрын

amazing. your better than my physics teacher who went to oxford!!!

@RimstarOrg 12 жыл бұрын

You're welcome. Thanks for the feedback.

@Studio-df7ge 6 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much! Well explained

@aafaqin 11 жыл бұрын

hey bro u cleared tons of my doubts!!!!!!

@4pharaoh 7 жыл бұрын

Very well done. Thank You

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Sorry, I don't know of a good website off-hand. I used my old high school physics textbook to double-check my knowledge of this. My approach was to first make sure my understanding of the relationship between electric fields and voltages was right. They're proportional to each other, denser e-field = higher voltage. Then I reminded myself that a charged VDG dome is a capacitor, with the room being the other plate. Since voltages are the same, e-field is the same, affect on ions is the same.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Oh good, glad to hear it helped. Thanks.

@RimstarOrg 12 жыл бұрын

You're welcome. I hope my answers helped. Cheers.

@0001Nikola 12 жыл бұрын

K, thx allot dude, this vid is great as well as the others on your channel. Keep up the good work :)

@RimstarOrg 12 жыл бұрын

The motor has a power chord which is plugged into the wall socket to power the motor. That power chord has three wires: a black wire, a white wire, and a green wire called GROUND. That green ground wire goes through the wall socket and eventually to a metal rod in the ground in the backyard. That green ground wire is the one you see in the video at 2:04. The brush and the green ground wire are both connected to the metal case so they are connected together. Let me know if that doesn't help.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

You're welcome. I'm glad I could help.

@ted_van_loon 2 жыл бұрын

the list of materials is nice, this way you don't need to find a very specific material.

@augurelite 11 жыл бұрын

Great video!!

@drbobhacker1803 11 жыл бұрын

Awesome work! Now I understand it! Too bad this was not around when I was a college student.

@stuarthaddox2585 6 жыл бұрын

I love this channel

@RimstarOrg 12 жыл бұрын

By the way, which Myles? There seem to be two of them depending on if you include user in the URL.

@videos12344444444 10 жыл бұрын

the best explanation...

@joonatankylmaniemi6887 5 жыл бұрын

A very useful video

@qewsadrtf 11 жыл бұрын

A really great video :)

@MrYamashici 10 жыл бұрын

great job!

@debashisbose 8 жыл бұрын

Thanks Sir, Its Very good.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Yes, you can use the same materials with a small homemade van de graaff. In fact the small one I show at 2:12 in this video has a Teflon roller at the bottom and a metal roller at the top and uses a rubber band for the belt. Using metal for the top roller is less effective than using something that's triboelectrically positive with respect to the belt material but the teflon and rubber band combination works so well that the results are still very good.

@jahidulmollah9743 8 жыл бұрын

rest all beautifully explained

@jayashreekuila2637 6 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much for this

@RimstarOrg 12 жыл бұрын

Yes. Air contains a number of different atoms. One I know for sure gets ionized negatively is oxygen, which can then attach to an O2 molecule to produce ozone (O3). I'm don't know offhand which ones get positively charged. I talked about atoms becoming ionized in the video but molecules (which are made up of multiple atoms) can also become charged.

@deepakdilip94 6 жыл бұрын

Great video.. Bro...

@RimstarOrg 12 жыл бұрын

@aethersheep Great! I hope you aced it.

@AggieWolverine 12 жыл бұрын

Great video and channel. Subscribed. Found through a "like" from Myles.

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Not usually. The electric field and resulting current flow are usually too weak. However, you can sometimes replace the regular multimeter probes with a high voltage probe to measure weak electric fields - by contact with the affected surfaces. You can see one of these probes in action in yet another of my videos :) "High Voltage Probe How-to with Fluke 80K-40".

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

Thanks! That's high praise; that's a good school.

@leandros_ab 6 жыл бұрын

Very helpful!

@RimstarOrg 11 жыл бұрын

(... continued) The same for a capacitor. The more charge you put on the cap plates, the stronger the electric field between the plates, the higher the voltage. The VDG dome and ground can be considered a capacitor. Pressure is sometimes useful analogy for voltage. By pumping more charge onto the dome you've built up the pressure. Bring a grounded ball close to the dome and the charge on the dome rearranges closer to the ball. The pressure may increase until the charge bursts across the gap.