Re: Variable Capacitance and Inductance

["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>


> 
> The fact that "elevation" alone is not the reason.  A precision shielded
> vacuum capacitor will measure the same value deep in the Earth, on the
> Earth's surface, high in the sky, or in outer space.  "Elevation" is simply
> not a factor.  You could get the same field change effects moving it
> sideways toward a wall.  Reading Tesla words, I don't think he quite
> understood that at the time he wrote this.  I don't think he "saw" what was
> actually happening there.  But he was very close and soon did latter.
> 


There WILL be a small change due to the non unity relative dielectric
constant of air. I think it's something like 1.0005 (not sure how many
zeros).. There is also going to be a variability in the apparent
capacitance because although it's not a great antenna, it still is an
antenna, so some power will get radiated. And, the losses will change as a
function of altitude (corona off the plate edges would probably be the
leading contributor)



> >