Re: science project?

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

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>

At 05:08 PM 8/30/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>Original poster: "Kevin Ottalini by way of Terry Fritz 
><twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <ottalini-at-mindspring-dot-com>
>
>Hey Adam!
>     Here is an odd thought and you might have to run your coil for a 
> number of
>hours
>at its lowest power to get it to run long enough (and safely enough).
>
>"What is the effect of High Voltage on Crystal Growth"

Kevin had some good ideas there...

There are also some animals that are sensitive to electric fields (at 
least, DC ones)... Snails, ants, etc.... Put an antfarm on the TC, or a 
series of farms at varying distances.  Cockroaches also make very tough 
experimental subjects (yep, they'll survive microwave ovens and vacuum 
chambers... a plasma etcher will kill them though)

Depending on your verterbrate animal experimentation rules, you could try 
things like fish.. (you just want the field, not frying the fish!)


Other more physics related ideas...

Make a bunch of efield sensors (i.e. neon bulbs or small fluorescent tubes) 
and place them in a regular array around the TC.  Observe (quantitatively - 
brightness of tubes) how the field shape and strength changes as a result 
of objects in the vicinity.  You could build some interesting objects... 
sheet of metal, sheet of chicken wire on a wooden frame, etc.  What about a 
person?   Experiment with shielding (you get to learn a lot about faraday 
cages, etc.).. either with fluorescent lamp sensors or with an AM radio 
(measure the volume of the static with an AC voltmeter across the speaker)

For instance, does having a counterpoise RF ground work better or worse.

Or even a quantitative measurement of the field strength would be quite 
useful.  You'd have to build a suitable probe for either electric or 
magnetic fields, calibrate it, and then make measurements at a series of 
distances and direction from the TC. The Efield probe is easy.. a small 
antenna, a diode, a capacitor, and a Hi input impedance volt meter.  An H 
field probe is just a shielded coil of wire.