Progress with Prototype

10/24/12    Today we set up the first prototype we tried using various oils but we could not make out any distinct  effects on the drops. When trying to use the microscope to see the drops we took about 20 minutes trying to get it in focus but with not much success. With this we decided to try using the nylon ball. We used a funnel to get the ball through the plates. When dropping the ball through  the field the ball fell straight to the plate without bouncing, as it did when the plates weren't charged. But we were unable to  get the ball todo anything other then drop.

10/23/12     We decided to buy a 1M ohm potentiometer as well as some 10M ohm resistors. When using this we broke the dielectric of air. We solved this by increasing the voltage using the resistor. But the ball still wouldn't move. In order to remove the ball from between the plates we blew the ball out but instead of leaving the plates the air passing over it ionized the ball and made it oscillate as shown below.