Jun 03 2008
FRANKENSTEIN lives!!!!!
We have struggled over the last year with various Van de Graaff generators not really performing to a standard that we are happy with. For those of you that don’t remember what a Van de Graaff generator is…. It’s that electrical machine with a big dome on top, that you put your hands on and your hair stands up… remember that one???
At any rate, after 3 disappointing models, we decided to heck with this and bought the BIGGEST, BADDEST Van de Graaff we could find. This thing is ENORMOUS!!!! It stands over 4 foot tall and I almost swear that the lights dim when you fire it up!
We did an experiment with it last night. I stood on the rubber stool and placed both hands on the dome. Certain that I was about to be shocked into orbit, I stood there shaking as hubby fired it up. Now, you may ask why hubby wasn’t the test object for this experiment. If you recall from the “eating fries and gravy picture”
Hubby has no hair. Therefore, he was not a viable option for our test object. This left me or the offspring. Since the thought of having our offspring shocked into orbit was more frightening (although some days… it would be a welcome break!) I decided to bite the bullet and step up to the plate (or orb on this day).
With in seconds of it being on, I felt the little hairs on my arms standing up, and then my head followed. Every ounce of my hair stood on end. The force field on this thing is AMAZING. Hubby was standing about five feet away from it, holding a florescent light bulb and it LIT!!!! Can you say HOLY SMOKES????
He turned it off and I stayed with my hands on the orb, still fully charged. Hubby went and got the camera and took this picture about 2 minutes AFTER it was turned off.
With the force field being so wide, I was terrified to let him near it with my digital SLR bad boy camera, for fear it would zap it. Therefore, the pictures were taken after the fact!
After that, we fired it up again. Only this time, we’d see what would happen if we sprayed my hair with water. AMAZING! You would think it would weight it down, but it made it stand up even more.
The next super cool, amazing, out of this world, TOTALLY FREAKING AWESOME experiment……. I only put one hand on the orb… he turned it on… and I had LIGTENING BOLTS come out of my fingertip! DUDE!!!! I HAD LIGHTENING COMING OUT OF MY FINGER!!!! That was the coolest thing EVAH!
That is the upside of being in a business that teaches science to children….. we get to play with the COOLEST TOYS!
Here is a picture of the hubster, standing with “Frankenstein” as we’ve so lovingly named him. He’s one cool dude! Or would that be… “he’s got an electric personality”?? I know.. I know… I won’t quit my day job. (oh wait, I don’t have a day job anymore!!!)
