But not in the way you would think. In the setup shown in the video, ordinary water drips from a common reservoir through two bottomless paintcans into two metal wastebaskets. As the process continues, a potential difference of 10-20,000 volts is generated and finally discharged via a spark.
The
arrangement is known as a "
Kelvin Electrostatic Generator" and would have been the sensation of any reputable alchemist in medieval times. It's still impressive today.
I found the video at the curiously-named and interesting
ChocolateChipCookiesRock blog.
10-20,000 kilovolts would be millions of volts. So you can probably lose the ,000 after the 20 or the kilo- before the volts. :)
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely correct. I've amended the text accordingly.
ReplyDeleteA thousand thanks.