Re: The Tabletop Tesla Coil Showdown - OFFICIAL RULES and WEBSITE

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <FutureT-at-aol-dot-com>

Malcolm,

Some of my own coils beat my formula, and some other folks'
coils have beat it too.  I think I've heard of results achieving
2*sqrt(VA), and possibly 2.2*sqrt(VA).  This is much easier
to achieve at high powers than at low powers though.  The
goal could be to achieve the longest sparks at a given VA
input.  This could be one of the catagories of the competition.
It does raise the issue of inaccurate meters since not 
everyone will have access to high quality meters.  

Using a particular transformer does eliminate the metering issue,
assuming the manufacturer doesn't make some transformers
*hotter" than others, and assuming folks can measure their
input voltages adequately to account for local voltage 
variations, etc. I wouldn't be too surprised if many of the coil
projects using the same model of transformer produce very 
similar spark lengths.

Cheers,
John

>
>      I previously suggested that the only real competition in Tesla 
> Coiling stakes was to beat John Freau's 1.7*SQRT(VA) for a single 
> resonator machine. That of course includes magnifiers. It's an open 
> competition, both to all comers, and for as long as it takes. I think 
> we'd learn much more doing that than trying to beat each other with a 
> particular transformer as a starting point. For some reason, that 
> suggestion never made it to the list.
>
> Regards,
> Malcolm
>
>