If you want to try this, you have to use a fluorescent bulb.Īfter returning the LED tube, I made my way back to aisle one to pick out a fluorescent tube. Fluorescent bulbs are able to light up when residual electric current hangs in the air because they contain low-pressure mercury-vapor gas. I picked up a 40-watt LED tube bulb, which will not work for this experiment. Like everything else, fluorescents are being phased out in favor of LEDs.
When I got back to my car, I looked at the packaging more closely. On the first trip, I strolled in through the entrance, casually asked where to find the fluorescent bulbs, made my way to aisle one, grabbed a 40-watt tube bulb and checked out. It took two trips into Home Depot, two purchases and one return to get what I needed, but I found a bulb that worked. That’s more than enough energy to light a fluorescent bulb from the ground. You can tell because they have bundled conductors - two wires per set. So I researched high-voltage transmission lines and found out these power lines are 345 Kv transmission lines. I stopped and stared up, wondering just how many volts of electricity were contained in these wires for it to be so audible from the ground. And I never thought much of the buzzing, except to think it was mildly annoying in the middle of an otherwise quiet and secluded space. I never thought much of these power lines, except to notice the buzzing as I was crossing the field. On each trip, we’d cross under heavy wire strung between large metal lattice towers. We’ve had a lot of adventures in this field, picking blackberries, finding the end of the creek and walking the dogs.
Incidentally, this inquisitive lifestyle led us to our latest adventure - lighting a fluorescent tube under the transmission power lines in the soybean field behind my parents’ house. Every day since has been a great experiment, figuring out how the world around us works. Then one day she looked at me thoughtfully and told me when she grows up, she wants to make real potions that make people better, and she wanted to know all about the people who have these jobs now and how she could get there one day. So we mixed glitter and water potions and filled tiny glass bottles with glitter for emergency wishes, and we had fun playing make-believe games. I thought it would be fun to make potions and wish dust. Ironically, Vayda’s decision to become a scientist was born out of interest in fantasy and magic. I have never been a person to look at something and immediately understand why it works the way it does. It was never a subject that came easily to me. I was content to chalk it up as magic in my mind. Before my daughter, Vayda, told me she wanted to be a scientist, I was happy to be ignorant to natural wonders that surround us every day.
My interest in science has grown in the last four years.
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