An Oudin coil can take the energy out of your outlet and create sparks you can see! It’s sometimes called a mini tesla coil. The sparks on them usually look violet. If you know the visible light spectrum, you might know that violet light is the most energetic color of light. The oudin coil looks
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We go through our daily lives encountering three of the states of matter; solid, liquid, and gas; nearly every moment, but the fourth, plasma, is much rarer for most of us. Plasma can be found around most forms of visible electricity, like lightning, but you can find it inside your microwave if you follow the
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We all know know what magnets are. At the very least, you’ve probably put one on the fridge. Magnets can come in all shapes and sizes, but they all work the same way. In simple terms, they have a north pole and a south pole. When two identical poles get close, they repel, and–of course–opposites
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Here at AstroCamp, one of our most popular classes is Electricity and Magnetism. At first glance, it might not be obvious how these things are related, but they are actually tied together through important physical principles. To give you some evidence, let me introduce the electromagnet. This is really just a metal rod wrapped with
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During a thunderstorm, lightning often appears to flash instantaneously from cloud to ground, but there’s much more going on than meets the eye! Friction between air currents causes a buildup of negative charge in the lower parts of the clouds. Like charges repel each other, so the excess negatives begin developing an escape route. Strong,
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The universe is full of action at a distance. Planets and stars tug on each other via the gravitational force. Magnets attract or repel based on their polar orientation. An object’s area of influence is called its field. Gravity, electricity, and magnetism are some of the most common field interactions. The plasma ball’s central electrode
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Electricity is one element of physics that we encounter on a daily basis. It powers our televisions and our computers, and keeps the lights on at home. Magnets are something we think of as less common, only using them when we need to navigate using a compass or stick something to our fridge. But electricity
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