I spent the evening at the Victoria Maker Space playing with the 3-D printer. The result is one of the few pieces I needed to make for my Tesla coil (yes that same tesla coil I’ve been talking about building for the last two years, get off my back mum!). What is a spark gap?…
For over three years I’ve been working part time on a physics themed video game. In fact for the past six months I’ve been doing that full time. The goal was to create a game that used the effects of Special Relativity as tools to complete puzzles and beat the game. Since I started this…
Just a heads up that I finally got off my but and started a real website! Welcome to gentlemanphysicist.com!…
I’m I’ve managed to build a fun little physics simulator that lets you see how Rudolph’s nose will change colour depending on the angle you see it from. Hopefully I’ll get it posted by the 25th. For now a teaser picture.…
I was able to complete the construction and soldering of the capacitor board in a few hours. The first step involves tracing out the circuit on a sheet of plexiglass, this is : if you look at the back of the board you’ll see how I’ve but a resistor across each capacitor, this keeps the…
Masen Lamb teaches us how adaptive optics lets us see through the atmosphere. His optical bench has mirrors that change their shape thousands of times a second. The simulator can be found here.…
The capacitors have finally arrived. UPS decided that shipping them from Ontario -> My apartment in BC -> Ontario -> University of Victoria was a good idea. However, they have finally shown up! Aren’t they beautiful? You will doubtless notice the little baggy of resistors. These have a ridiculously high resistance and voltage tolerances. They’re…
The first step in a Tesla coil is the transformer. It is what generates the initial voltage increase from a piddling 120V that is produced by an outlet to the powerful kilo volt range. In the good old days of 10 years ago you could just waltz down to a neon sign shop and purchase…
The top load is what turns the secondary coil into an LC circuit. The idea is that it acts like a capacitor with the ground. Charge builds up on it’s surface until the potential grows so large that a lighting bolt breaks out. The reason people shape it as a torus is to force the…
I was little disappointed to find out that the electronics shop had no appropriate capacitors lying around. I had been hoping I could avoid assembling by hand, or buying the fiddly little bastards. Oh well, I can only hope this doesn’t set me back too far. It looks like the plate capacitors are actually pretty…