tesla coil is an air core. why?

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

Original poster: "Laurence Davis by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <meknar-at-hotmail-dot-com>

this is a repost, first one didn't appear after 4hrs (apologize for 
duplicates)

why does the tesla coil use an air cored design?

I thought of a few reasons, but wasn't sure if i was right.

core materials can have hysteresis losses, eddy current losses, problems 
with saturation, and poor high frequency response.
therefore air cores are better?

I'm guessing that if you used a core the coil would loose considerable
efficiency or fail to oscillate (since the core would increase the 
inductance.)

but what if you used a diamagnetic material as a core.  I thought i saw 
somewhere that wood is diamagnetic.

larry.


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