An empty plastic bottle does nothing. However, addition of water makes it run. The water acts the same way as the metal foil on the inner side of a regular corona motor and conducts enough to act as a common ground. The positively and negatively charged foil corona brushes spray negative and positive charge onto the outside of the bottle which sets up repulsion and attraction forces that cause the motor to turn in the direction that the foil brushes are pointing. This is effect is demonstrated in this short video. The applied voltage is 20kV DC from a small portable DC power supply.
#teslacoils
#highvoltage
#plasma
#chemistry
#youtubescience
#hackerspace
#howto
#funexperiments
#youtubehomelab
#funscience
