Re: A challenge exploding trees

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

Original poster: "boris petkovic by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <petkovic7-at-yahoo-dot-com>


> 
> >>
> >Scot,
> >
> 
> exploding trees and lightning most definately ... 
> millions of amps at 
> 3+ million volts must = billion joules :) 
----
MA is quite overrated,3MV developed over struck object
such as tree is a reasonable value for lightening.
About 30 kA peak is statisticaly to be most likely for
lightening.One strike (return stroke)lasts about 0.1
ms.That would give you energy aproximately dissipated
per one return stroke in a treeE about 10 million J.
Multiply this by average number of return strokes in
one lightening flash (about 4) that gives 40 MJ.
However,significant portion of lightening energy is
dissipated sometimes in "long lasting" current in
order of 100 A .This current is mainly responsible for
most of forrest fires.
---   



 all in 1
> second or less  ouch 
>  no wonder why they explode...  but milliamps at 2
> million volts must = 
> 10 mayybeee  20 J. 
----
You have 2MV coil?Please give us specifications to see
that monster.
What milliamps?Many amps in TC output power arc.
Yes,the energy ballpark is good. 
---



 hot  but not that hot ...  
> 
> sooo   we have a high voltage at RF levels (kHz) 
> and some current  ( 
> not anywhere near lightning bolt levels) but still
> it kills the tree ... 
>  my question ..  is it the current or voltage in the
> rf form that did it 
> ??   which brings us back to human contact...  it
> must be the "energy" ( 
> joules) that will do us in ... 
---
Good,you answered yourself what it was.Arc contacts
with tree may be very hot and cause harmfull damage at
that place,microarcs inside the surface puncture the
structure of plant aditionaly,arcs in contact with
tree juices might develop poisenous compaunds for
 plants (continious TC arc sometimes cause Nitrogen
acid that isn't too healthy),etc.I seem to remember
one coiler reported he had used grounded cooper rod in
his garden placed in soil  to atract dischrges.The
vegetation in garden started to die after some time
despite never been hit by arc.It was probably cooper
infiltration that poisoned soil and plants could stand
that.All in all the conclusion:Keep away plants from
Tcs.
regards,
Boris