How to make a model Tesla coil
*A safe version that doesn't have fancy lights
You can learn...
How to make something that looks just like a Tesla coil. If you do it really well, people might even ask you if it's real.
Steps
First, find a cylindrical object like a toilet paper roll. Tightly wrap a red coloured string around the cylinder. Tape the edges of the string down. Now get 2 aluminum cupcake liners and stick them together so it looks like a UFO. Make a ring out of aluminum foil, big enough to fit over the top of one cupcake liner. Stick the ring onto the two liners. Glue the liners to your toilet paper roll. You're done!
Pictures
How does a real tesla coil work?
A tesla coil works like a cell phone charger but in reverse. A phone charger reduces the voltage while a tesla coil increases it. The tesla coil has two windings of magnet wire, the primary coil and the secondary coil. The amount it increases it by changes depending on how tightly they wrap the secondary coil and the primary coil. The more wire there is, the higher the voltage. A tesla coil also increases frequency. The tesla coil has a spark gap, primary coil, secondary coil, a capacitor, a torus, a high voltage transformer and a power source. The spark gap and capacitor create a very high frequency. When you have high voltage energy at a high frequency, this creates afield of energy. If a tesla coil is strong enough, you can light up a light bulb wirelessly. In the diagram below is a spark-gap tesla coil. There is also another type of tesla coil called the dual resonance tesla coil. In that tesla coil, there is no gap and in its place, is transistors which switch the current on and off to create high frequencies. Using the transistors, you can turn it on and off for a certain time to create a certain frequency. This can be used to create music (to see a tesla coil play Gangnam style see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMiblIS7sEI)
History of the Tesla coil
The tesla coil was invented and named after Nikola Tesla. It was invented in 1902 to make energy free throughout the world. Energy that the tesla coil generated was going to be transferred into the earth and somewhere on the planet, when they needed electricity, a receiver could pick up the energy wirelessly. The problem was, that no-one supported a good invention that couldn't make money.