Re: "Cheating" was Re: The Tabletop Tesla Coil Showdown

["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>

At 12:52 PM 10/10/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>
>
>Hi Jim,
>
>At 09:38 AM 10/10/2002 -0700, you wrote:
> >Antonio brings up an excellent point.  Terry, are you going to drive to the
> >top of Pike's Peak to do your test?
>
>Long's peak is closer, the road is better, and they have electricity way up
>there ;o))
>
> >Air density there is almost half what
> >it is at sea level, and, of course, your current 5000 ft (1500 m) elevation
> >gives you a 20% or so advantage (perhaps this is why the GMHEI... cup is
> >still yours??? )
>
>I just realized that!!!  See my other post.  I am at 5300 feet and the
>pressure is 25.05 inches.  Does anyone know what the spark distance
>correction should be.  I got 13.25 inches "here", but at see level is
>should be something shorter.  I can't remember the best attempt but maybe
>someone has already won it!!
>
> >
> >Should spark length measurements be normalized to air density and/or
> >breakdown field?
>
>I think it may be significant!!!  I'll have to try and find or extroplate
>some charts.  If anyone has any altitude vs. arc length charts, let us
>know!!  I'll also dig back through all emails to see if there are any winners.
>
>BTW - This could also affect the results I got for some of the TSSP list
>data too!!
>
>Cheers,


Just scale for air density... pressure halves every 18,000 ft..

Sparks follow Paschen's law for this kind of thing... breakdown field is 
proportional to density.

US Standard Atmosphere, 1962, at SL density is 7.647E-2 lbm/ft^3
At 5000 ft, 6.590e-2

86.2%....

Dry air has a lower breakdown field than humid air, too.... Hmmm.. it's dry 
in Colorado, maybe you got a boost there, too...