RE: Barium Titanite caps

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <Gary.Lau-at-compaq-dot-com>

A high dielectric constant implies NOTHING about how suitable that
dielectric is for use in a Tesla Coil.  The dielectric constant only
tells the volumetric efficiency of a capacitor using it - in other
words, how many uF per cubic inch.  The thing that tells us how lossy a
dielectric is is the dielectric loss coefficient, which is in no way
related or correlated with the dielectric constant.  It would be
interesting to compare the loss coefficients of barium titanate and
polypropylene, and that would be the only way to determine which is
truely superior.  One thing is clear though, and that's unless you get
lucky with finding a box full of BT caps at a ham fest, PP caps will be
far more economical.

Gary Lau
Waltham, MA USA


>Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>"
><RQBauzon-at-aol-dot-com>
>
>barium titanate capacitors are superior becaus of their high dielectric

>constant ranging from 1200 to 1600