Friday, 1 October 2021

The bin bag capacitor

 

I made a capacitor out of two sheets of kitchen foil with a bin bag in between. I connected it up to several thousand volts (but VERY low current!). The two sheets attract each other. If the bin bag is cheap enough, breakdown occurs and there is a loud crack and spark, punching a hole through both foil and plastic. The breakdown voltage was about 2000V.