photo credit: Casey Henkle; image source; larger image

Dr. MegaVolt

This photo shows Dr. Megavolt--particle physicist Austin Richards--wearing a metal body-suit in one of his Tesla coil performances.  The Tech section of Dr. MegaVolt explains the physics of the Tesla coil.  Also, don't miss the Gallery of photos and videos, reached from a nav button on the Dr. Megavolt homepage.  

(This feature was updated on December 1, 2011.)

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Charge and Carry

For activities on electricity, try the Exploratorium's Electrical Fleas and Charge and Carry.  

Security note:
Once you have clicked on the "simulation" link below, be sure to read the Java Security Advisory before running the simulation: To do that, click the "Read now" button on the yellow band near the top of the PhET page.

To learn about electrostatic charge, go to PhET simulations and click on "Balloons and Static Electricity" and "John Travoltage."

(This feature was updated on May 6, 2013.)

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image credit: Institute Archives and Special Collections, MIT Libraries, Cambridge, Massachusetts; image source; larger image

Van de Graaff Generator

This MIT time-lapse photo shows the historic Van de Graaff electrostatic accelerator during a test run--you can find out more and view related photos at Illustration from Report on Van de Graaff Generator.  To learn about the Van de Graaff accelerator, see this page from the Nuclear Wallchart website.

Faraday's Cage

- Watch this simple demonstration from MIT to see a Faraday cage protect a Benjamin Franklin figure from an electric field.

- Dr. Megavolt's bodysuit is a form-fitting Faraday cage--to see a full-size cage in action, check out this video from the University of Bonn: Faraday Cage Protects from 100,000 V

- For the physics of the Faraday cage, see this Wikipedia article.

(This feature was updated on July 18, 2013.)