02/22 Coleman

Class started with us turning in our homework from the previous day. Then, Mr. Ebersole passed out our assignment for the day.The assignment was to answer questions based on the experiments we would conduct later in the class. Next, Mr. Ebersole explained how a Van de Graaf generator functions. Essentially, a rubber band is spun across a wire mesh  in the sphere forcing the transfer of electrons. These electrons are then sent to the bottom of the generator a positive charge. Avery was chosen as the person to touch the top of the generator. When Avery touched it her hair went upwards very slightly. This was because the generator was pulling the electrons from her hair. That would giver her hair a positive charge. Since the top of the generator was also positively charged the two would repel each other, causing her hair to stand up. Mr. Ebersole asked for some volunteers to come up and hold her hand. Stedman volunteered. He received a mild shock when he held her hand because the charge was passed from her to him. Jacob Combs, Lance, and Isaac also volunteered to hold hands. As they did so Avery's began to go down Because the charge was spread out among them.

After that Mr. Ebersole handed out our homework, a reading check. He then took us two groups at a time to an experiment in the room past the AP students. Mr. Ebersole smashed mint green lifesaver in the dark so we could see them spark. Megan missed it the first time because she blinked. The rest of us who had to wait began to start on the other experiments given to us in the assignment from the beginning of class. There were four experiments on the paper. Two of which involved the generator and the livesavers. There were two other experiments. The first was to attempt to knock over a match atop a nickel using a rod rubbed with animal fur. The second was to rub tape on the table and attempt to move foil leaves inside an Erlenmeyer flask that were attached to a rod. The assignment was turned in before the end of class. We used the remaining time to work on the reading check.

QOD: I think the lifesavers spark because biting them forces electrons to move and these electrons react with the molecules in the air to produce light.