Re: Official air breakdown voltage?

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Malcolm Watts" <m.j.watts@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

On 27 Nov 2005, at 10:03, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "JT Bowles" <jasotb@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> exactly. a 12KV spark, at 30MA may only be 1/2 inch long. But, at
> thousands of amperes, it can stretched to over a foot

Stretch is not the same thing as jump. It is for precisely this
reason that a lot of people used to think that their coils were
putting out MV instead of 100's of kV.

Malcolm

>
> >From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
> >To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
> >Subject: Re: Official air breakdown voltage?
> >Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2005 17:00:37 -0700
> >
> >Original poster: Jim Lux <jimlux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >
> >At 11:35 AM 11/26/2005, Tesla list wrote:
> >>Original poster: "JT Bowles" <jasotb@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> >>
> >>Got it. Thanks, but 30KV/cm is still massive amounts of power for so
> >>little space. Current definately affect sparks the most, I'd say.
> >Volts isn't power... it's easy to charge yourself up to several tens
> >of kV and produce a nice air spark to a doorknob, but there's not a
> >lot of energy.
> >
> >Voltage is what gets the spark started, current is what makes it hot.
> >
>
>
>