Thousands of Volts from a Battery!

Overview

Objectives/Goals Create thousands of volts from a battery. I think that direct connection of a battery to a transformer will produce high voltage. Methods/Materials Use a transformer to increase voltage, from low to high. The transformer was salvaged from a friend#s television. Direct connection to battery did not work. I learned that a transformer#s input must be AC and not DC. My research suggested that I could create an AC driver circuit for the transformer and power it with a battery. I found the schematic of the circuit on the net and started to build it. Results After much testing and researching, I learned that the battery#s DC current can be fed into a 555 timer chip, which switched the current on and off, converting the battery#s direct current to alternating current. That was then fed into the transistor, which also switched the current, giving it a final AC current that was then fed into the transformer, which then produced thousands of volts. The experiment was proven, as the high voltage jumped a spark gap. Conclusions/Discussion My hypothesis was incorrect, as it is not possible to connect a battery to a transformer, because a battery produces a direct current. Faraday#s Law states so. Instead, we must convert the current to alternating current and then feed it into the transformer. A transformer works by making a magnetic field around one coil, using alternating current. Inducing magnetic filed into another coil with many more turns, increases the voltage.

Competition history

• CSEF 2007 Electronics & Electromagnetics · Entry J0826

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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