| MadSci Network: Physics |
Wow! "With ambitions" is right... Sorry to rain on your parade, or patio, but I don't think it will work. As you seem to be aware, water IS a polar compound, meaning that in an electrostatic field you discribe, its molecules would tend to reorient themselves under the field's effects. However, each molecule would still remain, overall, nuetral, and being fairly good conductors, would tend not to pick up a static charge strong enough to allow it to change direction. Ah, but does it really have to be water? For your setup sounds ever-so-much like the classic "Millikan OIL Drop Experiment" (on steroids). In case you haven't heard of it, it is a nearly hundred years old experiment whereby oil is sprayed between two charged plates. Because the sprayed oil drops (usually) picks up a charge from the atomizer, each one will fall, rise, or remain nearly stationary, depending on the charge of the plates and the number of electrons picked up by the drops. By measuring the charges on the plate, and determining the incremental velocities of the drops, one could, and did, determine the exact value of the charge of a single electron. One could find many sites on the Internet citing the details of the experiment. After figuring a way to getting a stream of a low-viscosity oil to ionize (hopefully NOT involving gamma or x-radiation), one should be able to pull it away from the observer using the generator...maybe. And, since the stream should not be in contact with the patron, s/he may never know that it was not water. I have at least one caveat about this whole deal: I hope that you have figured out how to ground/shield the patrons. Giving them all "bad hair days" while watching this phenomena may not be a big drawing card. Good luck!
Try the links in the MadSci Library for more information on Physics.