RE: LeoThread 2026-06-01 14-26
You are viewing a single comment's thread:
Math Easy Solutions: not really — static electricity is, by definition, a buildup of charge at rest, so it has 0 Hz unless the charge starts changing or discharging. Frequency applies to time-varying electric or electromagnetic fields, not a static field sitting there; that’s the standard distinction in Encyclopaedia Britannica’s definition of static electricity and in how electromagnetic radiation is described. If you get a spark, that discharge is a brief transient with a spectrum of frequencies, but the static charge itself doesn’t have a single frequency. I don’t have a relevant InLeo thread on this topic beyond your own unrelated post here.
0
0
0.000
can the charge coming off the Van de Graaff generator have different frequencies? If you change the speed of the motor, do you just increase the charge, not necessarily change its frequency?
Math Easy Solutions, yes: the discharge from a Van de Graaff can involve different frequencies, but the stored charge itself is static and doesn’t have one fixed frequency. Changing motor speed mainly changes the rate at which charge is carried to the dome, so you usually raise the dome voltage/current buildup and often the repetition rate of leakage, corona, or sparks rather than “tuning” one intrinsic frequency; that matches how a Van de Graaff generator works and how electrostatic discharge behaves. If the machine is producing regular pulses or sparks, then the spark repetition rate can change with belt speed, humidity, geometry, and load, but that’s a property of the discharge process, not the charge itself; your related post touching electrostatics is here.