Gibilisco - Electricity Experiments You Can Do At Home

Electricity Experiments You Can Do at Home

Stan Gibilisco is an electronics engineer, researcher, and mathematician who has authored Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics, Electricity Demystified, more than 30 other books, and dozens of magazine articles. His work has been published in several languages.

Stan Gibilisco

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To my physics advisor
at the University of Minnesota
circa 1974
who said:

One experimentalist can keep a dozen theorists busy.

This book will educate you, give you ideas, and provoke your curiosity. The experiments described here can serve as a hands-on supplement for any basic text on electricity. I designed these experiments for serious students and hobbyists. If you dont have any prior experience with electrical circuits or components, I recommend that you read Electricity Demystified before you start here. If you want a deeper theoretical treatment of the subject, you can also read Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics.

If you like to seek out mysteries in everyday things, then youll have fun with the experiments described in this book. Pure theory might seem tame, but the real world is wild! Some of these experiments will work out differently than you expect. Some, if not most, of your results will differ from mine. In a few scenarios, the results will likely surprise you as they surprised me. In a couple of cases, I could not at the timeand still cannotexplain why certain phenomena occurred.

As I compiled this book, I tried to use inexpensive, easy-to-find parts. I visited the local Radio Shack store many times, browsing their drawers full of components. Radio Shack maintains a Web site from which you can order items that you dont see at their retail outlets. In the back of this book, youll find a list of alternative parts suppliers. Amateur radio clubs periodically hold gatherings or host conventions at which you can find exotic electrical and electronic components.

As you conduct the experiments described in this book, youre bound to have questions such as Why are my results so vastly different from yours? If this book stirs up sufficient curiosity and enthusiasm, maybe Ill set up a blog where we can discuss these experiments (and other ideas, too). You can go to my Web site at www.sciencewriter.net or enter my name as a phrase in your favorite search engine.

Have fun!

Stan Gibilisco

Every experimenter needs a good workbench. Mine is rather fancy: a piece of plywood, weighted down over the keyboard of an old piano, and hung from the cellar ceiling by brass-plated chains! Yours doesnt have to be that exotic, and you can put it anywhere as long as it wont shake or collapse. The surface should consist of a nonconducting material such as wood, protected by a plastic mat or a small piece of closely cropped carpet (a doormat is ideal). A desk lamp, preferably the high-intensity type with an adjustable arm, completes the arrangement.

Buy a good pair of safety glasses at your local hardware store. Wear the glasses at all times while doing any experiment described in this book. Get into the habit of wearing the safety glasses whether you think you need them or not. You never know when a little piece of wire will go flying when you snip it off with a diagonal cutters!