yesterday, we got to use a van der Graff generator, what exactly is a van der Graff generator? well its a machine that has a hallow metal ball on the top, inside the ball is a moving belt which is used as an electric generator that creates static electricity. this charge is created by the friction created by the belt being transferred to the metal ball which creates static electricity. when someone makes contact with that charge, it causes a shock, if you hold on to the generator the person that touches you will get shocked, this happens because electricity wants to get to the ground as fast as possible.

what I learned from this assignment was that electricity is always trying to get to the ground has fast as possible, I now know how it feels to get shocked because I was one of those people that volunteered. we got to see thing like paper being moved with anyone touching them and aluminum cups flying away from the machine. its fascinating to see what static electricity can do, but its important to know how static electricity works in order to understand what it does.