How would you calculate how many electrons are transferred with each rotation by the Van de Graff generator? As is known, the Van De Graff generator is spherical and the one I used in particular had a circular summit that stuck out from the very top. I put a packing peanut on top of it, and it only took one rotation--or crank--to knock the material off from the machine and onto the ground. mass of the peanut=.001 kg, distance from the machine to the peanut=.0005m.