Real Dummies question about mains electricity

[John Laird]

A few years ago, someone got a stuntman to sit in a car on the ground under an enormous "lightning" generator, and filmed the results. I forget the exact voltage, but it was probably at least 1 million, maybe much more. They told him not to put his hands anywhere near the radio, as it was the most likely way for any current to leak through. They hit the car with a few strikes, iirc. A lot of noise, but he was fine.

Is that big Van der Graaf generator still working in the Science Museum, or is it now deemed too dangerous to give kids a fright without charging them for the privilege and strapping them into a Disney/Universal ride first ?

[Andy Dingley]

I don't think the Science Museum ever had a _really_ big VdG. Try the Boston Museum of Science if you want to see a _huge_ one (built by VdG himself).

The big noisy sparky thing in South Ken was a Marx generator or about

1MV. Charge a load of capacitors in parallel, discharge them in series. AFAIR, it was pensioned off a few years ago, owing to the age of the capacitor bank.

[G&M]

I assume the key word here is "batteries" (plural). If you put twenty or so in series it will most definitely kill you !

[chris French]

In message , John Laird writes

They did the same thing on 'Top Gear' fairly recently.

[Steve Firth]

Biggest I've seen was at Daresbury. It dwarfs anything in a museum. It used to be open to the public from time to time.

[:::Jerry::::]

Not if they are only 2 volt cells, otherwise MOD vehicles and HGV's etc. would be lethal to work on- think about it...

[G&M]

If you look carefully it says 12 volt batteries in the line above that I was referring to.

[Dave Hall]

[e-mail] (Steve Firth) wrote in :

It was decommissioned in about 1992/3 and if I remember correctly parts of it were shipped off to Oz. The building still stands and seems to have lots of telecom masts on it now.

Not long now till they close the synchrotron there as well and ship bits of it off down south (RAL).

Cheers

D

[John Laird]

Yes, it was on an entert^h^h^h^h^h^h motoring show, as I recall.

[John Laird]

Ah, I was only about 9 at the time I experienced it.

[Steve Firth]

Heck, I'm getting old.

[raden]

In message , Andy Dingley writes

The nuclear lab at Daresby used to have one - like a water tower but twice as high.

You could prolly achieve some serious hair styles with that

[raden]

You think ?

I'm looking back 30+ years

[Mark Evans]

Building site 110v is actually 50-0-50. What I find most worrying is those tiny American plugs being rated at 15A

A car battery has to store enough energy to be able to start the engine. It's also a characteristic of lead-acid batteries that they have a low internal resistance.