| Author | Message | ||
     Anonymous |
Could you use the negatively charged lead in the Van De Graff generator as a replacement for connecting the am transmitter to ground (possibly for portable use)? | ||
| Simon Quellen Field (Sfield) |
No. While electronic devices often have the negative side of their power supply tied to ground, they could just as easily work fine with the positive tied to ground. Calling the negative side "ground" is just a convention, and has nothing to do with connecting something to the earth. Transmitters, however, need the real earth. Some of the energy actually travels that way, and the earth also acts like a mirror, making the antenna look twice as long, with the feedpoint at the center. | ||
| Anonymous |
What are the uses of Van De Graff Generator? | ||
| Simon Quellen Field (Sfield) Senior Member Username: Sfield Post Number: 538 Registered: 12-2004 |
Dr. Van de Graaff (please spell it right so people can find all the references to it with a single search) originally designed it as a high voltage source for doing particle physics. It is still used in physics labs for that purpose. I suspect, however, that more of them are built and sold as novelty items in science museums and science classes in schools. | ||
| Hugo G Blasdel Unregistered guest Posted From: 216.15.45.123 |
Van de Graaff Generators are particularly stable in their accceleration and can be used to move heavy ions. Even at tens of millions of $US, they are cheep compared to more exotic systems. |
