How High Can Voltage Really Go?

Voltage is like the “push” behind electric charge, making it move. Imagine it like water pressure in a hose – the higher the pressure, the more forcefully the water comes out.

The highest voltage ever produced was at the Tandem Van de Graaff facility in the U.S. The machine used for this looks like a giant metal ball on a stand. It was designed by a scientist named Robert J. Van de Graaff in the 1930s.

This special machine achieved a whopping 25.5 million volts. To understand how much that is, consider this: a typical battery in a toy might be 1.5 volts. If you lined up batteries from end to end, you’d need 17 million of them to match the voltage of this machine!

But why produce such high voltage? It’s not for charging up your phone! Scientists use it to push tiny particles, like protons, at really high speeds. When these particles crash into other stuff, they help scientists learn more about the tiny building blocks of our universe.