How to make a macro particle accelerator

This is an attempt to reporduce Dr. Todd Johnsons demo of a particle accelerator by propelling a coated ping pong ball with electric fields.

What you see is strips of aluminum tape charged and spread out in a bow.l They are used to create electric charges that repeatedly change the charge of a conductively painted  ping pong ball.  This results in a sort of motor that propels the ball around the circumference of the bowl. 

I've heard accelerators like CERN use electric fields, and I've heard they use magnetic fields. I believe I can distuinguish between the two, but I'd be interested in an experts discription of their differences. 
 Imagine my embarassment if I learn here that there is no difference.  Even though everyone knows electromagnetism is a single force, It seems to me that at times it lacks polarity.
Either way, a simple understanding of "likes repel / opposites attract" is enough to see why this machine works.
 

Step 1 What you need

You're going to need a

bowl (at least 8' diameter)
aluminum tape (or copper) (aluminum foil and glue, maybe?)
wires with alegator clips ( I've found that large strips of aluminum tape is hard to solder to.)
A large cfl (compact flourescent tube)
a flyback transformer 
a ping pong ball
conductive paint,      (I made my own, but I made a poor mix. So I revived my dried out comercial stuff with "goof off." Look here.  http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G16133
 I think these home made recepies are sound though.  look here.  ( http://www.instructables.com/id/Conductive-Glue-And-Conductive-Thread-Make-an-LED/ )

Comments

[gabperez]

is it okay to use glass bowl?

[im.rrayitas]

hey, why i cant, dowload, the PDF, is very interesant,, please

[gabperez]

what's the output voltage of flyback transformer and cfl?

[rfleeman1]

Could you possibly show a circuit diagram of this please?

[emcelhannon]

I'll work on it.

[Brian Wall]

could u use a ball bearing instead of ping pong ball

[emcelhannon]

Negative. It's too heavy.

[hg341]

you shoudl make one with a taser

[macmaniac]

Would I be right in saying this *won't* work with an AC HV supply?

[stephenfitton]

Answere to( Electric Field) magnetism and (Magnet) Magnetism In an electrical circuit electricity runs on the External Surface creating a magnetic effect. In a magnet the imbalance of the internal elements(Alloyed)makes for a phenonemum whereby electrons and protons are rotationally filling in the( Imbalance Anomally). This is the equivalent of an electric field created internally giving the magnetic effect externally.

[HardcastleMcKormick]

An electric field will exist with any point charge (an electron, proton, etc...) which are called electric monopoles, meaning a negative charge can exist separately from a positive. There are also electric dipoles, but there are only magnetic dipoles. So yeah, a permanent magnet will always have a north and south pole (even if you cut it in half) and an induced magnetic field will have a north and south pole (which depends on the direction of the current). Permanent magnets are composed of magnetic dipoles which become aligned and stay aligned this creating an overall magnetic field. But many objects have this capability, its just that their magnetic dipoles are randomly aligned so no net magnetic field is observed. An accelerating charge will create a magnetic field, or b-field. There are two ways (I guess maybe more, but two common ways) to make a charge accelerate: the first is to force charge to follow a non-linear path (such as wrapping a wire around a nail and observing a magnetic field from a current through the wire, as Arano said), or by using alternating current, like that comes from the wall (60Hz), which means the current actually changes direction 60 times in a second.

[emcelhannon]

What of the poles? The electric field doesn't have North/South does it? Isn't it just an excess or defenciency of electrons. Is the magnetic field primarily a result of the charged particles unified orientation, (giving it it's poles)?

[stephenfitton]

An electric field does have a north south pole as it actually is rotating in its own kenetics is appears undefined, encounter with a steel bar allows it to interact in such a way as Fields North/South defined EG .Coil an insulated wire around a small steel bar put a A,C,D, Cell battery on opposite ends of wire,Connect, Have a compass Handy Read One way connection,Write down, Reverse setup, take reading, You have now answered your question/Maybe. Heres for an extra train of thought as my comments are only made to engage grey matter. (Energy is only created to its surrounding if there is an imbalance-SF)(Status-Quo "for safety purposes only Alkaline batteries to be used,Eg torch-batteries,"

[Arano]

if you have a wire with current on it (hope thats right said) there is en magnetic field shaped like a circle around the wire (with a lot of current you could go around it with a compass and the compass would always point with either east or west towards the wire)

[stephenfitton]

one would hope but the interferance and speed may bring no result at all.

[Arano]

i said that more for making clear what i am trying to say

[ELHORMIGUERO2010]

I'm trying to reproduce the linear accelerator. I've painted the ping pong ball with silver and I have 8 aluminium strips . Should it work using a solid state tesla coil as high voltage supply??? Thank you very much.

[emcelhannon]

I've never used a tesla coil, but it's worth a shot. I've been useing a crt, (intact) lately. I strip a bare part of the high voltage lead, and connect it to my positive strips. For my negative charge, I clip to the braided wire that wraps around the back of the tube. My crt's cut off as soon as there's an arc, but for this project, you don't want an arc.

[Ghost Wolf]

Question doesn't this project use A/C? Becuase Tesala made an A/C motor using that concept.

[Kinncat]

I really hate to say this, but this instructable probably gave me the basis for my new robot army. on a more sane note, I really hadn't thought of using the transformer from a CRT monitor. sure beats the heck out of my home-brew flybacks (boy, those were fun...) so thanks for that. have you tried using the liner accelerator setup you showed wrapped around something like a paper towel tube? might be the basis for a functional demo of the space fountain. would love to see that... anyways, props on the idea as a whole, given me a whole lot to plot about.

[emcelhannon]

Hey Kinncat, Check out this ible... High voltage fence. 

I tried it this morning, and it worked well.

No cfl necessary, just don't short it out. I did that too and earned a 1.5 inch burn accross my hand, and a ruined curcuit board.  Scared th begeesus out of me.

[Kinncat]

(bit late) hey, thanks! tried this, works grand! gonna get an instructable up for it soon, I hope. linear "particle" accelerator by paper towel tubes. launch ping pong balls and scare the begeesus out of your cat. what fun!

[zfolwick]

as a kid I used to take old lamp wires and strip the ends and hold onto them for fun. I dunno why all the fuss about getting shocked... but it's probably something to avoid whenever possible (unless you get off on that sort of thing)

[Gepetto Father]

Cool as hell... I imagine how it would behave with some little balls in that bowl instead.

[emcelhannon]

There's and idea. I'll give it a shot. I was thinking of coating some small styrofoam bobbers, but there's got to be something better I can use. There are so many different things to try with this concept. Think marble coaster, and you'll see where I'm headed.

[Gepetto Father]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but i think that charge will always distribute itself evenly on the surface of a solid body (high school physics, where are you?). In the first step you say that the ping pong ball gets charged, but it is hollow, with only an external superficial conductive layer, so, maybe, ball bearings will behave the same... try them, why not?

[emcelhannon]

I'm sorry, Father, but the project failed. The ball was just to heavy to be propelled. If you're right about surface charge, then all the inner metal is just dead weight. I also tried a 1/2 styrome bobber. It couldn't maintain "centrifuge?" but rolled around like a Mexican jumping bean.

[Gepetto Father]

Interesting... anyways, it was something we kinda expected. When you say "1/2 styrome bobber" you mean half a bobber, a hemisphere, or a 1/2 inch bobber (the mexican bean made me wonder). As always, i'm only shouting ideas here, as i'm too much of a noob to mess with HV, but thinner, much thinner, strips of alu tape should increase the rate that the charged body is pulled/pushed, thus accelerating it more. As for the light yet conductive material i can't think of anything, maybe sanding the pingpong ball the most you can, keeping it as spherical as possible, before coating. Last thought: a smaller sphere have better volume(and weight) to surface area ratio.

[emcelhannon]

I'm on it. I'll let you know how it goes.

[killerjackalope]

Hah I have had the same project in my unpublished box for ages, the power source is just too complicated for the everyman, its easy to make work but not without an hv power supply build, I will figure out how to make it go with everday objects eventually though

[bmoore9369]

High voltage is not dangerous at very low amps. Also at high frequence, it travels on the surface. Tesla discovered this years ago.. bobby

[lucek]

But by low you mean really low. 6 milliamps can kill. yes it is a misnomer just to say high voltage is dangerous but it's a good rule of thumb.

[emcelhannon]

You stand to lose credibility with comments like these. Under what conditions will 6 milliamps kill, (a human being) and how do those conditions relate to this project?

[lucek]

bobyo134 is correct 6 milliamps is enough to stop someones heart. it is also enough to incapacitate someone. in this instuctable touching the wrong parts of the tv while having your other hand grounded is dangerous. the point was that simple warning ether general ones like "this can be dangerous" or more pointed advice like "when working with electronics keep one hand in you pocket" could potentially stop an inexperienced person from making thees mistakes and injuring/killing them self.

[emcelhannon]

Could you site your source for this information?

[lucek]

what do you intend to prove with this? I explained the danger, it's a reasonable request to insert warnings, that has been done on this page. what dose continuing the discussion provide now?

[emcelhannon]

Because whoever taught you the dangers of electricity may have exagerated.

Now I mean this with all sincerety, lucek. Wouldn't you like to try something beside building closehanger stands and growing plants?  Don't assume sarcasm here.  If you heed every warning you read, without requiring validation, you'll be walled in by myths and urban legands. 

And because I need to be corrected if I'm wrong.

[lucek]

dude. are you really challenging me on the basis that I'm not a prolific instucrtable author. frankly do a little research. instead of just mocking me how about providing what you know. frankly I'll I see is that you have sited nothing to dispute my claim and have yet to provide an argument as to why a warning wasn't needed. the facts remains that as low as 6milliamps can cause paralysis/stop someones heart. my figure above was based on a resistance of the human body of 600-1000ohm. like I said if I'm wrong show it. if not you have no argument.

[happypants111]

Technically any amperage could be dangerous, consider heart conditions. The actual resistance of skin depends on if its dry or wet. If dry think around 100k ohms, if wet its more like 1k ohms. Now internally the resistance is much lower, more around 500 ohms. Typically 6 mA will not cause death, although possible. It will more than likely typically just be a painful shock (depending on pain tolerance of course). So if we're looking for a source how about what the government thinks? OSHA anyone? http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/construction/electrical_incidents/eleccurrent.html

[lucek]

OK you shown my claim to be wrong. I was confusing the minimal lethal level in one situation (not being able to let go can be fatal over time) with cardiac arrest witch your reference sites as higher. I will append this however. OSHA sites minimums for average sized adults. (even given there are no direct studies) the size of the body affects the lethal and paralysis limit for electricity. a 70lb 12 year old might be killed by a shock that would only hurt a 220lb adult man.