so if you haven't taken a physics class with circuits, capacitors store charge in two plates. the two plates have some sort of insulative(dielectric) material between them. Charge, from a battery or something of the sort, builds up on one of the plates.
the other plate, which charge isn't allowed to transfer through repels from the like charge on the charged plate.
If you don't care about why it works, all you need to know is:store a lotta charge and it can discharge quickly
so whats special about the Lyden Jar?
okay so the capacitince of a capacitor is determind using C= ((ε0)(Er)(A))/d
ε0 is a constant(sorry, idk how to do the subscripts)
Er is a number based on the insulator between the plates
A is the surface area of the plates
d is the distance between the two plates
if you want more detail on the equation, look it up, because I need more education
so Lyden Jar, or atleast how I'm doing it. I'm also directly stealing this from a certain person in credits
the Liden jar acts like a capacitor, so one would ask what the "plates" are and what the insulator is
so the insulator is a plastic bottle
one of the plates is salted water on the inside, which has a long screw drilled into the cap , and a metal ball on top. The other is aluminum foil wrapped around the outside.
so using our equation, you want to get a lot of surface area, and a little distance between the plates
the water in the bottle being a plate, and the aluminum foil on the outside have very little distance, and very large surface area
so you need water. go to a sink. if you need a tutorial on how to use a sink, you might have larger problems, and I suggest you focus on those rather than building a Lyden Jar
so bottle. My physics teacher said to use bai bottles, so I took a trip to target(its close) and bought one there. buy coconut cause its the best flavor, and drink it when you can(after sundown rn for me).
so you gotta put salt in the water. Buy whatever is the cheapest, because who wants to spend a lot of money on salt. or use salt in the kitchen
aluminum foil is needed, and I bought it at target
okay so as long as you have a metal screw you will be fine. if you dont wanna buy screws, find one off the ground, or beg your schools woodworking/engineering class. I'm cheap so im gonna beg my engineerig teacher
so you wanna put a spherical metal thing on top so charge can collect easily. My teacher says to take a ping pong ball and wrap it in aluminum foil, but I can't afford ping pong balls so its getting 3D Printed
sidenote, idk how to add pictures and I don't feel like learning rn, so no pictures for this guide. if like 3 people email me and complain and I see the complaints then ill add pictures
1. drill hole in bottle cap
2.put long screw through the bottle cap
3.remove bottle cap
4.add water to bai bottle
5.attach aluminum foiled ping pong ball to top of screw
5.use electrical tape to tape aluminum foil to outside of bottle
7. attach aluminum foil to ground, such as sink
and you are done