User:Ndelaney9295/ENES100/Static electricity

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Give instructor top 3 project choice list
I submitted three project choices and was assigned Static Electricity.

Write problem statement
The goal is to create an object that levitates when highly charged such as in these videos.

Assign Task1
My task was to set up the Wikiversity documentation pages and gather information as to how to safely charge objects.

Compare actual work done to Task1
I set up the Wikiversity pages and found some limited information on charging techniques and safety, but more importantly found a basis for our model.

Week1 Narrative
I found instructions on how to build and operate a lifter here. I drew a sketch in my engineering notebook for our moel.

Assign Task2
Over the weekend, I will build the lifter.

Compare actual work done to Task2
I built the lifter.

Week2 Narrative
While I originally designed the upper and lower legs of the lifter to be part of the same piece of wood in order to differentiate my design from the example from Week 1, I quickly discovered that it would be much more difficult to assemble, so instead of three 11cm poles, I cut them to be 8cm and 3cm poles. Most of the original pieces of wood I cut broke as I stumbled through gluing them together, but I eventually was able to complete the gluing.

The foil bits proved to not be long enough, as I cut them for 20cm exactly, and I realize now I should've left another cm or two to wrap around. I believe I can cut smaller pieces and simply attach them, but I'd like to see if it works as is, for now.

After writing the above, I checked the conductivity between the three sides, and it appears that only two of them are conductive with each other. I will need to add foil connectors to the remaining side.

I also threaded copper wire through the top posts. Two of them snapped, but I was able to repair them with tape that is aluminum foil on one side and adhesive on the other side. Sadly, connecting the non-attached side of the lifter via this tape does not appear to aid conductivity. The wire could also stand to be shorter, but I will tackle that issue once I have the larger ones fixed.

Assign Task3
I must attach more foil to the weak side of the lifter to get conductivity all around it. I also need to figure out how to build a high voltage generator.

Compare actual work done to Task3
I fixed the conductivity problem, but haven't yet determined how to build a high voltage generator.

Week3 Narrative
I glued a small strip of foil to both of the unconnected corners of the lifter. When I checked the conductivity, all sides appeared to work with each other.

I didn't make any progress in designing a high voltage generator.

Assign Task4
Design and build a high voltage generator.

Compare actual work done to Task4
I did not build a high voltage generator, but rather attempted to get materials available in the classroom to serve that purpose.

Week4 Narrative
The classroom contained a voltage generator (up to 30 kV), so using an HP 34111A High Voltage Divider Probe, I tried attaching the ground clamp to the lifter's wire and the probe to the foil and vice versa. Neither method caused the lifter to levitate.

It was difficult to attach the lifter to the probe's parts, so I attached two short pieces of copper wire to the wire on top of the lifter and to one of the sides of the lifter. I double-checked the conductivity of each of the wires to their respective parts of the lifter, and they appeared to be functioning correctly.

Start Next Project Week0 activities
For my next project I was assigned Apps.