Re: Breakdown voltages of toroids

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

Original poster: Bart Anderson <classi6-at-classictesla-dot-com> 

Hi Antonio,

Tesla list wrote:

>Original poster: "Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz" <acmq-at-compuland-dot-com.br>
>Tesla list wrote:
>
>I assumed a maximum electric field of 30 kV/cm.
>
>I list below some results, comparing with part of a table that I
>found at your site some time ago (for some reason, I could not find it
>again today at your site):
>
>One sphere grounded. Table values between (). Values in kV:
>sphere diameter (cm): 5               10
>gap spacing (cm):
>0.5              14.3 (17.4)      15.0 (16.9)
>1                26.3 (32)        28.6 (31.7)
>1.5              36.0 (44.7)      41.1 (44.7)
>2                43.7 (57.5)      52.6 (58)
>
>Symmetrical gaps:
>sphere diameter:    5              10
>gap spacing:
>0.5              14.3 (17.5)      15.0 (16.9)
>1                26.6 (32.2)      28.6 (31.6)
>1.5              37.4 (46.1)      41.3 (45.8)
>2                47.0 (58.3)      53.2 (59.3)
>
>The values in the tables are quite strange. Why would the voltage
>decrease for the 10 cm spheres at small spacings? Some values look
>too high.

No, it looks ok. At narrow spacing, the large sphere(s) appear planar and 
the electric field should near V/d (which it does). The smaller spheres 
curvature is more pronounced at these narrow spacings and is moving away 
from V/d. Notice that as the gap distance increases, the larger sphere 
begins to "show" it's curvature and after the 1.5cm spacing overtakes the 
smaller sphere (as shown by North).

Bart