10,000 Volt Water Battery From tins and Water

[markdansie]

This  is a challenge for all of those interested in batteries and Physics.
I feel the term generator would be more appropriate (although the water stored above is the battery)


http://revolution-green.com/2013/08/23/10kv-battery-cans-water/



Kind Regards

[TinselKoala]

I have no idea why Professor Lewin is referring to the Kelvin Water Drop Electrostatic Generator, invented in 1867, as a "battery". Sure, energy is stored in the lifted water, but calling this thing a "battery" is a real stretch. Lewin must be using the terminology deliberately to prove a point or something.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin_water_dropper

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kelvin_water_dropper.PNG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMwAijgsWz4

[TinselKoala]

So how does this work, then?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxEpSX2Hd54



And I am still, no kidding, looking for a good explanation of the effect shown in this video with the "Quantum polarization panel".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-aP7sk48jw

[Pirate88179]

I went through the first year on-line MIT course (videos) of Professor Lewin a few years back and I remember seeing this.  Also, interestingly enough (I will find it if anyone is interested) he shows a simple circuit where the resistors do NOT comply with Ohm's law at all.  Of course, the math he uses to do this, and his other stuff, is usually way over my head.  He is also the only academic person I am aware of that says that static electricity can do work.  I learned this on my own a while back but every physics teacher and professor I ever had said that it can't.

I am thinking that his use of the word battery here is relating to the "stored" energy in the cans of water raised above the device.  Potential energy would be a better way to describe it I think.  This device does not show the work required to raise the water (by filling the cans) which should be considered.

Great Professor though, I love listening to this guy.

Bill

[TinselKoala]

Lewin is a great teacher, always fun to watch.

But static electricity does all kinds of work. I remembered that inkjet printers used electrostatic fields to direct the droplets so I looked in WIKI... and Kelvin turned up again!

The continuous inkjet (CIJ) method is used commercially for marking and coding of products and packages. In 1867 Lord Kelvin patented the syphon recorder, which recorded telegraph signals as a continuous trace on paper using an ink jet nozzle deflected by a magnetic coil. The first commercial devices (medical strip chart recorders) were introduced in 1951 by Siemens.^[4]
In CIJ technology, a high-pressure pump directs liquid ink from a reservoir through a gunbody and a microscopic nozzle, creating a continuous stream of ink droplets via the Plateau-Rayleigh instability. A piezoelectric crystal creates an acoustic wave as it vibrates within the gunbody and causes the stream of liquid to break into droplets at regular intervals: 64,000 to 165,000 droplets per second may be achieved. The ink droplets are subjected to an electrostatic field created by a charging electrode as they form; the field varies according to the degree of drop deflection desired. This results in a controlled, variable electrostatic charge on each droplet. Charged droplets are separated by one or more uncharged "guard droplets" to minimize electrostatic repulsion between neighbouring droplets.
The charged droplets pass through an electrostatic field and are directed (deflected) by electrostatic deflection plates to print on the receptor material (substrate), or allowed to continue on undeflected to a collection gutter for re-use. The more highly charged droplets are deflected to a greater degree. Only a small fraction of the droplets is used to print, the majority being recycled.

And I'm also reminded that professional auto painters often use electrostatic fields to get more paint onto the target than they could without charging the paint.