Sparks to Mid-Air (fwd)

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 21:40:18 -0500
From: Crispy <crispy@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Sparks to Mid-Air

Hello,

This is something that's been bugging me for a while.  I like to
understand things that I see and do, but I can't figure out how a Tesla
coil can create sparks into mid-air.  You'd have to have some voltage
generated in the air relative to the Tesla coil topload (I think), but
how?  Is this dependent on the frequency at all?  Like, would a
theoretical Tesla coil operating at a very low frequency still generate
sparks into mid-air?

Thanks,
Crispy