Floating waterbridge
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Introduction
This experiment was first caried out by Lord Armstrong in 1893. Read the historical tales of this experiment.
Deionized water acts in a special way when exposed to high voltage. This experiment uses two normal household drinking glasses filled with deionized water and a lead in each glass from a 20kV flyback transformer, I used one of my older drives for the supply.
The experiment
7th may 2009
The drinking glasses are filled to the brink with deionized water and put close together, the water will climb up the sides of the glasses and form a bridge of water between the two. Very carefully the glasses can be pulled apart to gain a longer bridge, but eventually it will not be able to sustain due to gravity.
I was able to make a 12mm long water bridge as seen in these images.
Additional reading about this experiment
Elmar Fuchs and colleagues from the Graz University of Technology in Austria
Peter Terren from tesladownunder.com
Conclusion
This is an easy and fun experiment to do if you already have a high voltage low current power supply at hand, reproducing experiments by scientists is a great way to acknowledge their discoveries and learn some new theory and history.
Demonstration
Posted April 21, 2010 by Mads Barnkob | Log in