Re: secondary question and WEIRD Arcs

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

Original poster: dhmccauley-at-spacecatlighting-dot-com 


Yeah, this picture clearly shows that.
http://www.easternvoltageresearch-dot-com/teslabw_gallery/bigimages/teslabw04.jpg

You can see that the shortest path is directly straight to the grounded
sphere, however, the arc curves downward first towards the ground
and then turns and goes to the grounded sphere.  Its not a one-time fluke
either.  Time lapsed photo shows this happening numerous times.

Perhaps its the gradient electrical field caused by the ground and
rod/sphere assembly.  It just might be following lines of equipotential??

Dan



 > The funny thing about TC sparks is that they don't do the normal, ohm's
law,
 > common sense things regular dc/constant ac sparks do (which is what makes
 > TC's more fun than, say, a jacobs ladder or vdg). Sometimes they'll ignore
a
 > direct ground a foot away and go for a brick wall 3 feet away, depending
on
 > which direction the ions ahead of the actual spark try to go. Also, the
coil
 > itself has a electrostatic field around it. Even if the coil were way too
 > short, the spark would go around the field and hit the bottom or the
 > primary/strike rail, unless they're the "racing" type.