Re: [TCML] My Kid's School

["Peter Terren" <pterren@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I would probably do stuff like that but public liability issues make it 
almost impossible here.
(think unqualified amateur wants to run 1/2 million volts next to a crowd of 
schoolkids)
Peter
www.tesladownunder.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <jhowson4@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 10:12 AM
Subject: Re: [TCML] My Kid's School


> my engineering teacher and i did a presentation for his daughters entire 
> third grade.  in small groups of course.
>
> we explained what an electron was.  they already knew what the subatomic 
> particles were which really surprised me.  so we explained how the 
> electrons and protons determine charge and how charged particles 
> interacted . we used a vandergraff generator to  re-enforced these ideas 
> by using those small pie plates on the device.  ( if you put a bunch and 
> the vandergraff they will fly off).  we also used string and smaller light 
> weight spheres to show how different charges attract.
> after all that was done we explained how the larger the area of the sphere 
> on top of the vandergraff the more charge we could store.  which we 
> demonstrated by the good old kids in a chain to the water pipe trick. 
> then we explained why the last kid screamed louder than all the rest. 
> (they all wanted to do it again of course)
> after this we let them shock each other and have some fun.
>
> then came my tesla coil (after getting them all lined up on the other side 
> of the room of course)
> one of my smaller tesla coils 24 inch sparks sits on a table kind of 
> thing.
>
> I used the swing analogy to explain how it works.
> we did not really want to get in to electromagnetism,. so we lied and said 
> that the tesla coil was like a vandergraff except we bounce the electrons 
> back and forth in the coil instead of just building them up in the sphere. 
> they all wanted to know why the coil had a donut instead of a sphere. i 
> forget what i said.
> just like your friend gives you a little push on the swing causing you to 
> go farther the tesla coil does the same thing causing electrons to get a 
> little more  volts added to them.
>
> after showing it with no ground i used my ground rod to draw arcs and 
> such.  then we let a few of the kids hold a florescent tube (at a safe 
> distance) and ohh ahh it glows.  they liked that.
>
> that was pretty much it
> i was really surprised at how much the kids actually understood.  The 
> teacher told us that they were talking about it for weeks and want us to 
> come back next year. its too bad i am at college since i would totally do 
> it again.
>
> cheers,
> Jay Howson
> jhowson4@xxxxxxxxxxx

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