This is interesting, Leyden jar only discharging assembled.

[William Gaatjes]

If you watch this section of the video, you will notice that the two charge collectors are not discharging when the Leyden jar is disassembled. Only after the Leyden Jar is assembled again, the discharge takes place. The glass is of vital importance as the dielectric. The glass is polarized when the Leyden Jar is charged. I always assumed the charge is stored on the inner and outer plate. But this video makes me think that in this case, the dielectric is where the charge is stored. But i do not believe that. It is the combination of the plates and the dielectric. What am i overlooking here ? What is the magic of plates and glass in a Leyden Jar ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ckpQW9sdUg&feature=player_detailpage#t=152s

 

[William Gaatjes]

Never mind :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyden_jar#The_.22dissectible_Leyden_jar.22_myth

It is the combination of plates and dielectric and the material of the dielectric.

 

[Ghiedo27]

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/...02/video-lectures/lecture-14-biot-savart-law/This MIT OCW Lecture takes a bit more time to go through it all. Starting at ~33:30 Prof. Lewin demonstrates and explains the phenomenon.

 

[DrPizza]

Prof Lewin's lectures are awesome.

 

[William Gaatjes]

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/...02/video-lectures/lecture-14-biot-savart-law/This MIT OCW Lecture takes a bit more time to go through it all. Starting at ~33:30 Prof. Lewin demonstrates and explains the phenomenon.

Thank you. I will view this and more. Some will be new, others will be a memory refresher. I like the Caltech videos as well. I find them the perfect mix of explaining the science , the background of the scientist, the background of the science and just the placement in history.
I am sure you have already watched them or know them. If you do not :

Here is a link to a thread with more interesting movies :

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2131292&highlight=cal+tech


Here is the first Caltech video :

http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...netic+waves&view=2#docid=-6774539130229106025