RE: Racing sparks, streamer growth, coupling, etc.

["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>

Hi John:

I'm guessing that your observation may be more of a radius of curvature
issue rather than a capacitance issue?  I should think that a larger top
capacitance, keeping ROC the same, would only reduce the incidence of racing
sparks, as it reduces the maximum attainable voltage.  

I see racing sparks more often without a breakout point, when a top load is
barely able to break out. But then, I've seen racing sparks with breakout
points, so I don't think it's just an ROC issue.

Gary Lau
Waltham, MA USA

>Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>"
<FutureT-at-aol-dot-com>
<snip>
>Regarding big top loads, I do see increasing racing sparks with
>larger toploads.
>
>John Freau