AboutDan Fink Expertise Though my experience is mostly in the fields of electricity, magnetism, and physics, I have a broad science background. My career is in the field of alternative power sources -- solar, wind, water and battery power. But any questions about electricity, magnetism, energy conservation, power generation, electric motors, and even general physics are very welcome--especially from kids. They ask the best questions of all! I pride myself in answering science questions accurately, with ideas for SAFE, easy experiments that kids can perform by themselves--and that let them prove the answers to their own satisfaction. I think science should be fun, and available to everyone, regardless of age.
Experience I have volunteered in our local public schools for 5 years. I currently make presentations at our schools about electricity and magnetism, with a focus on solar, wind, water and other alternative power sources. I try to demonstrate at our schools how easy it is to make electricity, with simple devices using spinning magnets and coils of wire--powered by wind, water, bicycles, gerbils...etc. And of course solar panels! I am the webmaster of Otherpower.com, an alternative energy website. I have lived 10 miles from the nearest power pole for 11 years--I make all my own electricity from scratch with sun, wind and water.
Publications Otherpower.com
Wondermagnet.com
Co author of the book "Homebrew Wind Power" ISBN 978-0-9819201-0-8
My articles appear regularly in such magazines as Home Power and Back Home Education/Credentials BA Technical Journalism
Question QUESTION: I read electrons leave a battery, and flow to positive of battery. I read for every electron that exits the negative terminal, one enters the positive terminal. Some negative ionizers use batteries. A negative ionizer emits electrons that jump on particles in air. So how is it the electrons from the batteries negative,,can leave the circuit and jump onto air particles? Since it seems that would break the circuit,,as was told to me every electron that leaves the negative of a battery must enter the positive of the battery.
ANSWER: Hi Steve --
A very good question!
Remember now that every atom of everything contains electrical charges, both positive charges (protons) and negative charges (electrons). You can't make any more, and you can't destroy the ones that are there, you can only add energy to move them around. In a conductor (like a wire) the electrons can travel about in a big 'sea' -- this sea of electrons is why metals look shiny.
In a gas atom (like in air) and most other atoms (non-conductive solids, liquids) though, the electrons are tightly bound to the atom. It takes energy to knock them loose and make "free electrons." There are 2 ways to do this -- alpha radiation works, as does high voltage (either AC or DC).
What the air ionizer does is accelerate free electrons hard enough that when they collide with other gas atoms, they transfer enough energy to knock more electrons loose from other atoms, a sort of chain reaction. (called an 'electron avalanche' -- really!)
Where did the free electrons in air come from in the first place? From the radioactive decay of natural elements in the air and soil, from lightning, from the electrostatic discharge from moving water (like ocean waves and waterfalls), from cosmic rays, and so on.
So, with your negative high voltage (corona) ionizer, you are accelerating free electrons (that were already there in the air) away from the ionizer so they slam into other gas atoms, knocking more electrons loose to be "free," which then slam into others and knock more electrons loose....the more energy you pump into your ionizer, the faster they move and the farther the distance this can happen at.
Summary -- an air ionizer does NOT in any way transfer electrons from the wires of the battery > ionizer circuit to the air. What it does is use the battery to push on the electrons in the wire to transfer *energy* to push on the 'free' electrons already present in the air (from natural background radioactive decay). The farther you go from the ionizer, the weaker the 'push,' and at some distance it will no longer be strong enough to knock any more electrons loose.
Please let me know if you have further questions, I'd be happy to help.
AND, I hope that this answer is as fun for you to read as it was for me to write! I love this stuff...
DAN
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: so your saying no electrons transfer from the ionizer to the air,,if I read you correct? So when you stick your finger near an ionizer and a tiny spark shoots across,,that is not electrons jumping to my finger?? And if that is electrons jumping from the ionizer to my finger,,are those electrons from the ionizer,,or just from the air??
ANSWER: Hi Steve -=-
Yes, you have it correct.
Remember how I said that the closer you are to the high voltage of the ionizer, the stronger the electric field? When the field is strong enough, it's said that you've reached the 'dialectric breakdown point' of the air...there are so many ions there that the air becomes conductive. *Now* there is a complete circuit -- right into your finger, and the spark is electrons from inside the ionizer circuit jumping to your finger. But the ions that allowed this to happen by becoming conductive were from the air, not from the circuit.
DAN
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: I was not sure to ask the question here,,or start a new post, so here goes. I know someone who showed me an experiment with a negative ionizer. He took the metal end of the ionizer, the part that will shock you ever so lightly if touched. And connected a wire to it, then ran that wire to a piece of metal, which was placed in a water container, full of water. He showed how the water would charge up,,and removed the ionizer part from the water later. And then if you touched the water, you got a tiny shock. What happened here,,did electrons leave the ionizer and enter the water and charge it up? And how did the water hold the charge? He showed that the water can hold the charge for a long time if left alone, would the electrons leak out of the charged water in time?
Answer Hi Steve, it's fine to ask in a followup, everything gets indexed.
It sounds like that experiment was a water capacitor. It can store enough energy to knock you across the room with a shock!
To understand this, go back to my first answer, and keep in mind the difference between electrical charges and electrical energy. Batteries and capacitors do NOT accumulate electrical charges...they are already full of as many charges as can fit in there. But when you put energy into a battery or capacitor, you are pushing the charges around in the circuit and creating a charge imbalance....you are storing ENERGY, not charges. When the capacitor discharges, the charge imbalance goes back to zero.
