Uploaded January 2013 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Metal ball spins in a circular orbit while climbing and descending surface of funnel, to the tune of 12,000 volts.
This machine which resembles a cyclotron is made of a 5" plastic funnel with four aluminum foil strips. Two of the radial aluminum strips (electrodes) are positively charged with a potential of 12 KVolts while the other two are negatively charged, where each strip has the opposite polarity of the one adjacent to it.
When the aluminum strips are electrified and the electrically-neutral, 1.27cm-diameter (about 0.5"), ball is at rest at the bottom of the funnel, it is polarized by induction by the nearest aluminum-strip electrode.
Assume the polarized ball is attracted to a positive aluminum strip. When the 1.27cm-diameter (about 0.5") ball is within the breakdown air-gap of 1.2cm (about 0.47") for 12KV, from this electrode, it is immersed in a positive plasma well, becomes a positive monopole (most likely before it even contacts the electrode), and is repelled by the electrode.
Unlike in a real cyclotron with electrons and where the electric field switches at radio frequency, here, the ball flips polarity each time it contacts an electrode and transfers its charge from one electrode to the other. This transfer of charges (current flow) is the electrical energy provided by the high-voltage power supply for the mechanical rotation of the ball.
The geometry of the funnel serves the function that magnets would in a real cyclotron, i.e., keeping the ball in orbit.
Check out a variety of cyclotron driven by electrostatic charges:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCbYhDNjOviG_oLgmVuWCsOLtHrS13pVy
#electrostaticmotor #cyclotron #ElectrostaticExperiment #physicsinmotion #chargedparticles
#Accelerator
Metal ball spins in a circular orbit while climbing and descending surface of funnel, to the tune of 12,000 volts.
This machine which resembles a cyclotron is made of a 5" plastic funnel with four aluminum foil strips. Two of the radial aluminum strips (electrodes) are positively charged with a potential of 12 KVolts while the other two are negatively charged, where each strip has the opposite polarity of the one adjacent to it.
When the aluminum strips are electrified and the electrically-neutral, 1.27cm-diameter (about 0.5"), ball is at rest at the bottom of the funnel, it is polarized by induction by the nearest aluminum-strip electrode.
Assume the polarized ball is attracted to a positive aluminum strip. When the 1.27cm-diameter (about 0.5") ball is within the breakdown air-gap of 1.2cm (about 0.47") for 12KV, from this electrode, it is immersed in a positive plasma well, becomes a positive monopole (most likely before it even contacts the electrode), and is repelled by the electrode.
Unlike in a real cyclotron with electrons and where the electric field switches at radio frequency, here, the ball flips polarity each time it contacts an electrode and transfers its charge from one electrode to the other. This transfer of charges (current flow) is the electrical energy provided by the high-voltage power supply for the mechanical rotation of the ball.
The geometry of the funnel serves the function that magnets would in a real cyclotron, i.e., keeping the ball in orbit.
Check out a variety of cyclotron driven by electrostatic charges:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCbYhDNjOviG_oLgmVuWCsOLtHrS13pVy
#electrostaticmotor #cyclotron #ElectrostaticExperiment #physicsinmotion #chargedparticles
#Accelerator
