Tag Archives: van de graaff

To compare the responses of objects with similar and dissimilar charges. Students use a hand-crank Van de Graaff Generator to charge different objects to determine whether they attract or repel each other.

The Fun Fly Stick is a toy that appears to magically “levitate” and repel objects after the teacher presses the button on the handle. What makes the Fun Fly Stick operate is a scientific principle of static electricity that Robert Van de Graaff utilized some 75 years ago. What Van de Graaff originally developed, was a device which produced very high voltages that were needed to accelerate particles to energies high enough to create new elements.

The electrical force is so pervasive that it is difficult to name many aspects of the physical world not affected by it. At the most fundamental level, the attractive electrical force between electrons and protons holds atoms together. On a bit larger scale, electrical interactions between atoms are responsible for the formation of molecules. On a much grander scale, a rapid discharge of atmospheric electricity manifests itself as a flash of lightning. All these phenomena are governed by the same basic principles.