Re: Useless questions

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

Original poster: "Malcolm Watts by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <m.j.watts-at-massey.ac.nz>

Hi Jim,

On 21 Feb 2002, at 21:51, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>
> 
> No need to do this... The question of the physical state of the streamers
> has been answered at great length in the published literature on sparks and
> arcs.
> 
> As for IR film, yes, it IS available, both black and white and false color,
> but, be aware that this isn't really for thermal imaging (although the high
> speed black and white IR film is slightly sensitive to thermal IR).
> 
> In any case, the gas in a spark is at a high enough temperature that the
> blackbody emission peak is well up into the visible.
<snip>

Agree. I've always regarded sparks as being pretty hot considering 
the amount of power they're dissipating. There are countless tests 
that can demonstrate this (like steel wool on top of the terminal).

Regards,
malcolm