Can you pass electricity through Glass?

[basslover911]

I am thinking about using two magnets connected to the +/- wires to magnetically pass electricity through a thin sheet of glass. Would this work?

[dcb]

If you put a coil of wire on each side of the glass and make a transformer of sorts, it might do something with AC.

[Piwoslaw]

There is a reason why the things that connect electrical lines to poles are made of glass.

If the glass is really thin, and the voltage is high, you might get a current flowing, but you'd be losing a lot to resistance.

[basslover911]

And so something like this? (wireless inductance?)

[Ryland]

You can get an induced current and produce a bit of heat as well, a stationary magnet is going to do nothing, the magnetic fields need to move in order for it to do anything, the motion can be mechanical, or by using alternating current with an electro-magnet.

Just saw the image that you posted in your first post... no, that will not work, not like that, the circuit is open, there is no closure, it's like an open switch, remove the glass and use conductive magnets and it would work.

But the big questions is... why? what are you trying to do?

[basslover911]

Originally Posted by Ryland

You can get an induced current and produce a bit of heat as well, a stationary magnet is going to do nothing, the magnetic fields need to move in order for it to do anything, the motion can be mechanical, or by using alternating current with an electro-magnet.

Just saw the image that you posted in your first post... no, that will not work, not like that, the circuit is open, there is no closure, it's like an open switch, remove the glass and use conductive magnets and it would work.

But the big questions is... why? what are you trying to do?

I want to make an aquarium pump that doesn't have the cable hanging out the fish tank. So simply cut off the ac cable that all pumps have and "pass it" through the glass without drilling it.

I see this is possible with "inductive charging" like all electric toothbrushes have, but i don't quite understand them. If there are two coils, exactly like one another (like in my drawing) would they both produce the same magnetic field? (all the DIY "inductive chargers" I find have all these diodes and capacitors to make them resonate at the same frequency... but i dont get why if instead you can just make both coils the same exact size...)?

[Old Tele man]

...the answer is "no" if you're talking DC-voltage, but "yes" if you're talking AC-voltage and using CAPACITIVE COUPLING. Glass can be used as a dielectric media in capacitors, but it's gonna take HIGH-voltage AC to work.

...the dielectric constant ( c ) of two types of glass are:

Glass, crown.............6.2 ±1.0
Glass, flint.............8.5 ±1.5
Mica.....................6.2 ±0.7
Insulation, elec.cable...4.1 ±0.1
Diamond.................15.0 ±0.2
Air......................1.000537 @ 20ºC

[basslover911]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...the answer is "no" if you're talking DC-voltage, but "yes" if you're taling AC-voltage and using CAPACITIVE COUPLING. Glass can be used as a dielectric media in capacitors, but it's gonna take HIGH-voltage AC to work.

...the dielectric constant ( c ) of two types of glass are:

Glass, crown.............6.2 ±1.0
Glass, flint.............8.5 ±1.5
Mica.....................6.2 ±0.7
Insulation, elec.cable...4.1 ±0.1
Diamond.................15.0 ±0.2
Air......................1.000537 @ 20ºC

Yeah thats what im worried about, high voltage.

I guess I just need to look into inductive charging (like a toothbrush charges) as opposed to simply trying to build a simple transformer huh? (so as to not use the glass as a means of getting the energy transferred at all).

[dcb]

Originally Posted by basslover911

And so something like this? (wireless inductance?)

Yup, that is how the toothbrushes do it too. Now you need to make it a "step down" transformer if you want "safe" voltage levels in your aquarium, still I wouldn't deliberately expose any circuits, as the exposed circuits will become electrodes and "dissolve". I don't think the glass cares much about magnetic flux, it won't be the worlds most efficient transformer but if it is low power then no biggie.

[UFO]

You need to adapt one of these to pump your aquarium:

Porta Stirrer Magnetic Stirrer - Utah Biodiesel Supply