Indirect method for determining the electric potential on the surface of a Van de Graaff generator sphere and calculation of VdGG output voltage

Authors

  • Čeněk Kodejška Grammar school, secondary technical school and college Nový Bydžov

Abstract

This study addresses an indirect method for determining the electric potential on the surface of a Van de Graaff generator sphere, concurrently enabling the calculation of the generator's output voltage (VdGG). The employed experimental approach involves measuring the maximum angle by which a pendulum is displaced after making contact with the generator sphere. The pendulum, constructed from a graphite-coated ping-pong ball suspended by a nylon thread, serves as the experimental apparatus.
Video analysis of the ball's motion was conducted using the Tracker program, allowing the determination of the pendulum's maximum deflection angle and its distance from the centre of the VdGG sphere. The experiment was conducted for various pendulum lengths within the interval (0.6-1) m and for two different ball masses.
The output voltage of the Van de Graaff generator was determined through the resulting analysis to be U = 150(5) kV, demonstrating good agreement with the manufacturer's specified range of 150 kV to 200 kV.

Published

2024-06-01

How to Cite

Kodejška, Čeněk. (2024). Indirect method for determining the electric potential on the surface of a Van de Graaff generator sphere and calculation of VdGG output voltage. MATHEMATICS–PHYSICS–INFORMATICS, 33(2), 121–128. Retrieved from https://mfi.upol.cz/index.php/mfi/article/view/818

Issue

Section

Physics

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