Tesla Coil Show: Sparks, Crown, and Introductions at SCIPP

1. Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics Tesla Coil Show sparks Crown students

2. Introductions… UCSC Physics & Institute for Particle Physics Prof. Terry Schalk Prof. Hartmut Sadrozinski Vicki Johnson Rene Johnson Amy Furniss Grant Golland Jessica Missaghian Annika Chase Brian Colby Maureen Petterson Rion Parsons

3. SAFETY FIRST! • Normally you can't see, hear or smell electricity, but the Tesla Coil generates 1 million volts, causing • Bright sparks • Loud crackling noise • The air smell strange (Ozone) 1 Million Volts! DANGER SAFETY RULES • Stay at least 20 ft. away • Computers, Gameboys, CD players, telephones to the back of the room – unplugged, switched off! • Hearing aids off, pacemakers out of room! BRACE YOURSELF!

4. Zorro Drawing lightning with a sword

5. Sparks fly to sword Some electric current also goes through the air and lights up fluorescent bulbs Where else does that happen? Electric current goes back through wire

6. What’s this all about ? FUN while learning!! • Presentation tools… • Zorro • Knight in armor • What physicists do… • And our Outreach activities • Facts about Lightning

7. Galaxy DNA Cell Atom Nucleus Electron microscope Accelerator A Physicist’s View of the Universe and the instruments she uses to see it Larger & Farther away Smaller & Harder to see Logarithmic Scale: every inch = factor 10

8. Nucleus of an Atom

9. SLAC AstroPhysics Large objects in the sky Black holes, Supernovae Visit us. Teaching, Research, Outreach Particle Physics: Quarks, Gluons

10. Galaxy DNA Cell Atom Nucleus Electron microscope Accelerator A Physicist’s View of the Universe Larger & Farther away Smaller & Harder to see Logarithmic Scale: every inch = factor 10

11. SUPERNOVAE!!!! You are here! Your Cosmic History(an astronomer’s perspective) You! Protein molecules: Basic building blocks of life Earth and Sun: Home of the C,N,O atoms from which these protein molecules were assimilated Sun’s ancestral stars: Their nuclear fusion reactions produced these C,N,O atoms Galaxy: Large family of stars

12. Milky Way

13. Teaching, Research, Outreach SCIPP OUTREACH: Tesla Tesla Coil at your School: “Zap your Teacher” Quarknet Invite H.S. teachers into our labs for Summer research program Invite H.S. student interns into our labs for a science experience BalloonFest Organize a High School Science meet on Ballooning

14. June 24-July 28, 2007 Quarknet Summer Program: H.S. teachers and student interns do research

15. Balloonfest in Paso Robles and Vacaville: 15 teams of 80 high school students Launch balloons, gather & analyze data.

17. Electricity in Air Lightning Jacob’s Ladder Corona Tesla Sparks are all related. Principle: Air is made of molecules. When they are ionized, 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. Thus, the sparks, flames etc are direct evidence for the model of atoms!

18. What’s Going On? The Story of an Atom in the Air ELECTRON FROM TESLA COIL PHOTON An electron shooting out of the tesla coil hits lots of atom and knocks one of their electrons to a higher energy state. When the electron falls back down, it emits energy in the form of a photon, which travels to our eyes and we can see as light.

19. The Faraday Cage Posted on Tue, May. 17, 2005 Students uninjured after power line falls on car By Sandra Gonzales Mercury News Four San Jose State University students escaped injury Monday night after being trapped in their car after a power line fell on it near the university. At about 8 p.m., the four were traveling in the car on South Sixth Street near East William Street when a tree fell, blocking the street and knocking down power lines, fire officials said. The lines struck a chain-link fence, a parked Honda Accord and a Chevrolet van, and one landed on the moving car. As the scene unfolded, a San Jose fire engine that happened to be nearby responded, warning the occupants of the Toyota Corolla to stay inside until PG&E could shut off the power to the line. The car's occupants were safe while they were inside the car, but could have been electrocuted if they attempted to get out before the power was cut. Once the power was shut off, the students safely left their car unharmed. The downed power lines, however, sparked a small fire on a nearby tree that was quickly extinguished.

20. Meet the Fighting Knight Fighting Lightning Bolt to the Head

21. History was not kind to N. Tesla: Engineering Battle Royal of the 20th Century: Thomas “DC” Edison and his Batteries vs. Edison won the first rounds, but Tesla carried the day Nikola “AC” Tesla and his Generators • Tesla Revival • 271 web sites are dedicated to Nikola Tesla • Join the “Tesla Coil Web Ring” http://nav.webring.yahoo.com/hub?ring=teslaring&list

22. Nikola Tesla as a Daredevil in a double-exposure photograph Learn more at http://nav.webring.yahoo.com/hub?ring=teslaring&list

23. 120 volt Outlet 14,000 volt Transformer 1 million volt Resonance circuit Summary of Tesla coil operation: Voltage starts at 120 ends up at 1 million!

24. T primary transformer S C P2 S2 secondary transformer UCSC EE 70

25. Tesla’s idea: Transform the power Electrical Power is converted wind, water, thermal power It is brought to your city on high voltage lines to transformers Power goes in at 14000 Volts Power comes out At 120 Volts

26. Transformation of Power The SLAC linear accelerator creates 90 Billion Volts, as much as 90,000 Tesla coils! We use that power to make new particles for scientific research

27. GLAST Transformation of Power Electrical power is converted everywhere At home: Iron, Micro wave, Heater, Radio Space hosts incredible Power sources Black holes explode : Matter -> Light, x-rays, “jets” GLAST Mission (SCIPP+SLAC): investigate the most powerful “power plants” in the universe

28. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + – – – – – – – – – – – – – + + + + + The Faraday Cage Are you safe in an airplane or a car during a lightning storm? Is it safe for the knight to be hit by the lightning bolt? Yes! Electric current flows invisibly through the outside of the metal shell (Faraday Cage), not touching the people inside.

29. + – + – + + + + – – + + + – – + + + – + + – + – – + + + + + + – – – – + – + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + How lightning works + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + – – – – – – COSMIC RAYS!! Cover the earth And always have – – – – – – In the turbulent clouds, charges get separated – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – The ionized air can conduct the electrical current

30. Mystery Knight Who is afraid of Lightning? Not the Mystery Knight! Even if he is NOT grounded

31. Is the Mystery Knight OK? Let’s check! The armored suit is safe! • It's a Faraday Cage – no electric field allowed inside. Invisible current 1 Million Volts Electrical current flows on the OUTSIDE of a metal! Visible sparks Visible sparks Ground

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

33. Fysiks is Phun! Thanks to Sally Gaynor for inviting us! Questions? Ask after the show, e-mail, visit… You can find our coordinates on the web http://scipp.ucsc.edu