PREVIOUSLY: « Alchemy bonus  How to produce static electricity with water »


Water-powered mp3 Player

Posted in Geek, Physics, Science at 1:00 pm by David Bradley -- 6 Comments; add your comment

In this week’s video, MIT’s Walter Lewin demonstrates how to produce 10 to 15000 volts of electricity using a couple of empty paint cans, a bucket of water, some wire, and two balls. The question is how does this work and could you use it like the potato powered mp3 player?


<br /> &lt;a href=&#8221;http://www.youtube.com/v/F5PvIPgJGx0&#8243; flashvars=&#8221;&amp;subtitle=on&#8221;&gt;Watch on Youtube&lt;/a&gt;

I’ll look forward to seeing your suggestions in the comments and will post a more detailed explanation the the answers tomorrow.

6 Responses to “Water-powered mp3 Player”

  1. 6
    David Bradley Says:

    The demo is exploiting static electricity and I think that relies on the dripping effect to work…so probably not in the way you suggest, but perhaps two dripping hose pipes, eh?

  2. 5
    Phillip Newman Says:

    If I have water flowing through a hose, is it Possible to generate small amounts of electricity from the flowing water without the use of a turbine or water wheel? Perhaps in a similar way to this experiment?

  3. 4
    David Bradley Says:

    Haseebullah, Youtube appears to have changed the code for the video, I’ve fixed it, it should be visible now.

  4. 3
    Haseebullah Says:

    please MR.David Bradley explain the general method of this experiment as i cannot see the vodeo any more .Also requirements.

  5. 2
    David Bradley Says:

    I thought it was a great demo, I recall only ever seeing it on “schools” programming before, never in class. Watch out for more details (my own assignment handout) on Tuesday.

    For Sciencebase video fans, next Monday, we’ve got a special treat (well, I think it’s special). A short global warming lecture with a difference from Austrian student Bernhard Steinerhoff.

  6. 1
    DV82XL Says:

    I haven’t seen one of these in years. Of all electrostatic generators, this one is the least intuitive – good for him making it an assignment to explain it.

Leave a Reply