DIY Capacitor

A capacitor is a device that stores electric charges. It consists of 2 electrical conductors separated by a dielectric material. The DIY Capacitor I created is made up of aluminum foil, cling wrap, copper wires, and duck tapes. The 2 aluminum foils serves as the electrical conductors which were separated by a cling wrap which serves as the dielectric material. The copper wires serve as the terminals that are why they should also never stick to each other. The way I tested my capacitor is by connecting its terminals for a few moment then checking its voltage. The highest voltage I saw was I think around .08V.

Leyden jar

Leyden jar is a homemade device which stores static electricity like a capacitor. It consists of a plastic container, salt water, a metal object, aluminum foil, and copper wires. The Leyden jar I created only stores estimated values which are only Nano Farad. According to what I’ve read, plastic containers can use have up to 50kV. To test if you Leyden jar is working, you need to charge up the positive terminal of your Leyden jar then connect it to the negative terminal. If you see a spark, (if the charge is enough) you created a working Leyden jar capacitor.

Dipole Antenna

A dipole antenna is a kind antenna that is centered at a desired frequency. It’s a T-shaped antenna with a small space in the middle. Its sides are folded to determine the desired frequency. It is one of the antennas used for televisions such as Yagi and quarter wavelength antenna. 

 *based on our old file and research from transig

RF Field Meter

RF Field meter is a device that is used to tune a transmitter; it’s also used for determining the signals and voltages of signals. It consists of several capacitors and diodes. Based on our activity, the nearer the phone is to the field meter the higher the voltage can be detected and the farther it is to the meter, the lower the voltage is detected. But once an element is added, it gains more voltage maybe because the pen I used is a good conductor. The LCD screen (From laptop) which we have has higher voltage because it’s magnetic force according to Faraday’s law. I didn’t get to try the field meter on a microwave because we don’t have a microwave oven but I think the field meter will be able to detect it since it has a frequency range of .3Ghz to 300Ghz.

Career Development and Management Engineering

Last November 3-5, 2011, we attended several seminars regarding career development and management engineering in the IECEP event. The topics that have impacted on me most are the talk about Google and Personal Branding.

Google is one of the biggest companies in the world today. It target different aspects such as storage, search engine, cloud computing, uploading files, and even social networking. Google can help a lot of companies by being partners with it and helping the company with regards to file storage and software developments. They can provide their services with only a small amount to pay compared to having IT departments for each company. For me, the only downside of this file storage is that the privacy of the company may be at stake, since it’s stored in a public storage, people may have a chance to view and access the files of other companies which can be used to bring down their competitors.

Another good seminar for me is about the personal branding. Personal branding for me is making you look better not just in looks, but also in intelligence, logic, cooperation, and other things that may be a good asset to the company. Many factors impact this personal branding; even your profile picture in Facebook could be a big change on people’s impression of you. Talking and how you interact with other people is also a major thing. Most people can know your personality and attitude just by looking or talking to you. I believe that every people is more intelligent than what they’re transcript of records has, it’s just that first impression is still a major thing.

Coin Battery

A coin battery is a battery with minimal voltage that is made by putting 2 different coins in a small measuring cup that has different kinds of liquid each. Each type of liquid has different voltages; some are even with very minimal voltages. We used a VOM for measuring the DC voltage. Based on our experiment, the more acidic the liquid is, the higher the voltage it has. The more plane or baser it was, like water, the lesser the voltage. We used coke, water, buko juice, liquid soap, and tap water as the liquid. 

substance	w/o coin	With coin
water		0.12 v
Buko juice		0.093 v
Liquid soap	0.003 v	0.75 v
Coke	.14 v	.37 v

Gauss law in foil electroscope

"The electric flux through any closed surface is proportional to the enclosed electric charge." -Carl Friedrich Gauss

We can apply the Gauss theorem on this foil electroscope experiment through observing that the leaves (foil leaflets) are not separated when no charge is applied. Otherwise, when a charged is applied, the 2 leaves repel from each other through Coulomb’s law. I think what makes this repulsion deal with the gauss law is the fact that electric charges never reside inside a conductor but only on its surface. Since this leaves are charged oppositely, the charges which are only on its surface repels.

Foil Electroscope

A foil electroscope is a simple home experimental activity that shows the effect of electric charges on a given medium. Based on our activity, our medium is pieces of aluminum foil. I put 2 of the pieces of foils on the end of a copper wire beside each other. On the other side, I charged different things such as a CD, comb, and even used our CRT monitor. As I attach the other end of the wire on the charged objects, the foils separate from each other. It even went to the direction of the TV. This shows the effects of charges based on Coulomb’s law.

What materials did you try out for this activity?

• Copper wire, jar, pieces of aluminum foil, brush, cd, pen

Approximate distance between each leaves

• 1-3 inches

Which of the listed materials where able to hold stronger like charges to that in the leaves?

• The brush, maybe because I charged it the most

How does the on/off affect the leaves?

• Greater charge because of static remains

What is taking place when you turn the monitor on/off?

• More electrons are charged meaning greater repulsion

How do you feel about the safety rule on the CRT Monitor?

•  I think its enough because the human body can only feel its effect up-close