science experiment

a few nights ago i was watching David Letterman on the side while using my pc as i often do late at night. We sometimes get repeats of old shows (dunno why, his show aint THAT good) so im not sure of how recent the episode shown actually was done in USA

Anyway, he had some kids of about 12 on his show to do a couple of basic science experiments and science experiments always catch my attention.

The kid had some sort of static generator, it looked like a pole with a shiny alloy sphere on top and was only a little bit bigger than the average lava lamp.
It also had a smaller, similar "wand" with cable which was used to discharge it after the experiment. (maybe someone can name it for me? coz i missed the name of the device)

the kid said that this device had a belt up the middle that caused friction generated static electricity comparable to rubbing your feet on carpet for a thousand miles or so..

They then got a stack of alfoil pie dish's which were sitting one inside the other and they sat them directly ontop the sphere.

now for the trippy part: when they turned the static generator type device on the top foil dish would float off the top of the stack by several inches and then as it drifted to the side it would fall away from the field and the next one in the stack would then lift out and do the same.

I know its a bit of a far stretch of the imagination between the letterman 12yr old science kid experiments with pie dish's and say, UFO antigrav propulsion (im not trying to say they are the same thing) but it was like a switch went on inside me and i thought "heres a real basic and simple form of proof that antigrav or some type of magnetic propulsion is very, very plausable and highly likely indeed"


edit: it was like the van de graaf generator seen in the upper right corner of This Link Here but only of about 1/2 - 2/3rds that size shown. it was definately much smaller



[edit on 19/5/07 by Obliv_au]

[edit on 19/5/07 by Obliv_au]

Good analogy. I'm guessing it was some kind of antistatic repulsion but just goes to show you that a mass can be moved using a simple force.

I think if science actually understood what gravity was then they could see that anti-gravity technology is the holy grail of space flight. But there is extreme technical issues to over come according to some on the way to producing anti-gravity waves.

Good analogy. I'm guessing it was some kind of antistatic repulsion but just goes to show you that a mass can be moved using a simple force.

I think if science actually understood what gravity was then they could see that anti-gravity technology is the holy grail of space flight. But there is extreme technical issues to over come according to some on the way to producing anti-gravity waves.

that device is called a van-der-Graff generator. we have them in school and they're pretty fun. you can get a colander with cotton thread poking through the holes like worms. place it on the generator and the cotton will start to straighten out like a guy was given an electric shock. it goes every where. its more fun when you stand on a chair. and place your hands on it. you hair will start to lift off like the cotton.

the basic principle is that the belt in the tube is vynal and in the dome there are copper brushes that transfer electrons from the vynal to the dome. the electrons are stored there until discharged with eg a wand that has been grounded, a person touching it, or objects being placed on top of it. the plates float because of the lifter theory. electrons are transfered to the plate, and this ionizes the air causing the plate to lift off.