Zapollen

It is spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and most of the trees and other plants are being sexy. The air is full of pollen, therefore. It gets onto everything. And any automobile that gets washed in the morning will have another dusting of pollen on it before the day ends.

There is a toss-up between driver safety (need to see through windshield!) and the global need for fresh water (don't waste it, please!) We need a better way remove pollen from cars, therefore.

I will suggest a Van de Graaff generator. If you put your hand on one **before** it charges up, then you can safely experience 400,000 volts or so. Each hair on your head (if you have any) will receive an electric charge and will be electrostatically repelled by all its neighbors, and your head will look something like a dandelion about to loose its seeds into the wind.

So, what about attaching your car to a Van de Graaff generator? The solid rubber tires will offer excellent electrical insulation, so that a nice large electrostatic charge can be applied to the vehicle. This charge will be easily conducted throughout the metal body of the car, and some of it will certainly be conducted to the coating of pollen. The pollen will then be electrostatically repelled.

The fun way to do this, of course, is to charge up the Van de Graaff generator **before** running a wire to it from the body of the car.

ZAP!!!

All the pollen immediately goes something like **spuunnng** away from the car! Well, maybe all of it. I'm not so sure about the windows, unless they are specially coated to conduct electricity. Which makes this Idea Half-Baked, of course.

(Remember, after turning off the VdG generator, you need to run your connecting wire to the ground, to remove the static charge on your car. Also, remember to do that before you yourself touch the car!)