dielectric strength of hot glue was Re: Longitudinal Waves

["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>

>
> >Did you squirt that hot glue out of the gun, or melt it all and pour it?
>
> I squirted it out of a gun.
>
> >Does it have bubbles in it?
>
> It has no bubbles in it.
>
> >How did you determine that it will withstand a half million volts?
>
> Plexiglas is rated at 900 volts per mil.  At 1/4" Plexiglas this would
give
> about 225,000 volt rating.  The hot glue is roughly the same thickness, so
> as a round number I guessed around 500,000 volts.  I realize it could be
as
> low as 300,000 volts.  I wasn't looking for exact numbers, just a good
> ballpark.
>

I seriously doubt that hot glue would have anywhere near the breakdown
strength of a sheet of acrylic plastic the same thickness.  While you might
not see bubbles, they are probably there.  Also, I think most of the hot
glues are a composite of several substances: binders/fillers/etc. which does
not bode well for breakdown strength.

Also bear in mind that thin sheets of a material typically have a much
higher breakdown strength (in a kV/cm sense) than thick sheets.