Q&A for How to Make a Leyden Jar

Yes. It wont hurt, but there will be a small or large shock, depending on how much you charged it.

No. This will not hold the static electricity.

No, sadly you can't power much with static electricity (if anything). You would need to use a different type of capacitor for that.

Yes. This would be a great model to show in most classrooms.

No. Paper towels will not generate static electricity the way that wool does.

Yes. You can use any insulating jar or bottle. Insulating materials include plastic and glass.

The Leyden jar is just a capacitor, so yes, you can charge it with a battery. However, it will only charge to the battery voltage. The capacitance of the Leyden jar is very low, and you need several kilovolts to make interesting sparks. A large jar may be only as much as 1 nanofarad (1 nF), so the voltage has to be so high to store any appreciable amount of energy.

Yes, but you need two leads, so use a metal button on the doorknob, and another to the doorknob itself. Make sure that the button isn't touching the doorknob.

No, you would need to charge it first, otherwise nothing would really happen.

Yes, at your age you can make a Leyden jar. Just try to be careful and not hurt yourself.

You can use any material that can insulate electricity. As stated in Method 1, Step 1, "Choose a glass jar or a plastic bottle with a lid." As long as your water bottle meets that criteria, you're good to go.

If nothing happens, then you can touch the foil to get a shock. The foil may be touching something conductive - if it's on a metal or wet table top which you also happen to be touching. You would then either see a spark and get a shock if you have made good contact, or it may just (relatively) slowly discharge the Leyden jar. Other than that, both the nail and the foil are essentially interchangeable in function. A capacitor usually has two terminals which are similar in function and interchangeable - except maybe for a polarized cap.