UC Santa Cruz Tesla Coil Show at Freedom School

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UC Santa Cruz Tesla Coil Showat Freedom School
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Your Guests today

• Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics SCIPP
• Prof. Hartmut Sadrozinski

• Dr. Alex Grillo

• Dr. Hiroshi Ohyama

• Mr. Edward Hawkins, Coordinator

• Ms. Holly Hester, Administrator

• UC Santa Cruz Department of Physics
• Dr. Charlie Crummer, Laboratory Manager

• Brian Keeney, Junior
• Paul Graham, Carbon-Based Life Form

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• Tesla Program
• Introduction Jacob's Ladder
• Safety First
• Corona
• Zorros Sword
• Lights without Cords
• Facts on Lightning
• Knight in Armor
• Bolt to the face
• Sparks from the feet
• Chicken Coop
• How the Tesla Coil Works
• Mystery Knight in Armor
• Fighting Lightning

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What is a Physicist?
A Person who asks Questions about Nature.
Today is your chance to be a Physicist Ask
Questions during the Show!
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Teach students, learn about nature (Research)
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The size of the object and its distance tells me
what kind of instrument I need to see it.
Larger Farther away
Smaller Harder to see
From Biggest To Smallest...
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Professors and Students (and Teachers!) conduct
research in the SCIPP Laboratories.
http//scipp.ucsc.edu
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Summer 2001 Teachers help launch a giant
research Balloon.
Mr. Kliewer Prof. Schalk Dr. Dann Mr. Manildi
Mr. Briber
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Balloon Chase and Recovery
Balloon flew 400 Miles across Texas, at 130,000
feet in the air.
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SAFETY FIRST!

• Distance at least 20 ft.
• Computers, Gameboys, CD players, telephones to
  the back of the room unplugged, switched off!
• Hearing aids off, pacemakers out of room!

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Three things to understand

• Electrical Current
• Lightning
• The Faraday Cage

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Zorro
Drawing lightning with a sword
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Electricity Moves Through the Air (you knew
that, because you use a radio and TV
What about those lights without cords?
What is happening with Zorro?
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Electricity in Air
Lightning Jacobs Ladder Corona
Tesla Sparks are all related.
Principle Air is made of very small bodies
called molecules. When they are broken apart,
they become charged and can conduct a current
like an electrical wire. If there is a large
current, it heats up the air and makes light
(like in your toaster!).
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How lightning works
Ground is safe!
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Meet the Fighting Knight
Fighting Lightning Bolt to the Head Sparks from
the feet
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The Faraday Cage
Planes are close to the clouds and away from safe
ground. Why arent they in grave danger from
lightning?
Answer They form a Faraday Cage -- that is,
they are surrounded by metal. Electricity flows
around the outside of the metal, and anything
inside is safe!
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Thomas DC Edison and his Batteries
vs.
Nicola AC Tesla and his Generators

• Tesla Revival
• 271 web sites are dedicated to Nicola Tesla
• Join the Tesla Coil Web Ring
• http//nav.webring.yahoo.com/hub?ringteslaringl
  ist

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• Nicola Tesla as a Daredevil waiting for a hair
  cut?

• Double Exposure makes it safe!

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The Chicken Coop
The Worlds Ugliest Faraday Cage -- and its full
of holes! But can it keep the lightning out?
Does the chicken trust the equations?
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How does the Tesla Coil work?
Ask us about details!
Voltage starts at 120 ends up at 1 million!
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Learn about Transformers
Power comes out at 14000 Volts
Where have you seen this before?
Power goes in at 120 Volts
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Physics Principle Transformer
We heard a lot about conserving Power (turn off
lamps, air conditioners, close refrigerators...)
Power is brought to your neighborhood
on high voltage
lines and a transformer brings it down
to 120V
Power goes in at 14000 Volts
Power comes out At 120 Volts
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• Transformation of Energy

• Power is used everywhere
• Visit the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
  (SLAC) Electricity -gt New particles
• Quarks

• Power is tranformed in Space
• Black holes explode
• Material -gt Light, x-rays, jets
• SCIPP works on GLAST Mission
• discover the most powerful
  power plants in the universe

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Learn about Resonance
Thats how a swing works A kick at the right
moment builds up and gets you sky-high!
In the Tesla swing, the kick is supplied by
the AC electrical current moving back and forth
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Mystery Knight
Who is afraid of Lightning?
Not the Mystery Knight!
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• Is Mr. Rasmussen OK? Lets check!
• The armored suit is safe!
• It's a Faraday Cage no electric field allowed
  inside

Invisible current
1 Million Volt
Electrical current flows on the OUTSIDE of a
metal!
Visible sparks
Visible sparks
Ground
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• Fysiks is Phun!
• Questions?

Ask after the show, e-mail, visit
You find our coordinates on the
web http//scipp.ucsc.edu
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• Thanks to our hosts
• All you students
• Mr. J. Rasmussen
• Mr. B. Hayes
• Ms. Jean Heintz
• 4th and 5th Grade Teachers
• Ms Mitani, Ms Carlson, Mr Andrijasevich
• Ms Giovannis, Mr Kolbeck, Mr Ortega
• Ms Covarrubias, Ms Laing, Ms Jeffries

Say Good bye to Daniel Greenhouse, the brain
behind the sparks He was an undergraduate at UC
Santa Cruz.
http//scipp.ucsc.edu