Hey Jessie....as far as knowing what the avg. currents are on an avg. coil in the streamers, I have to guess 1/2 of what is being used at the plug. As far as thinking that currents coming from any coil, for example such as mine, are in the range of being quite potent. Streamers from pole pig coils can and do create enough current to burn plastic, punch holes in flourescent lamps( yes melt holes in the glass tube) and set wood on fire within seconds.
As far as not feeling the electricity, I would agree wholeheartily that you cant feel the current after a certian frequency. What most people do feel when shocked are most likely harmonics of the running frequency. Consider that our ears hear from 20 - 20K Hz
Expose yourself to 30+KHz at 120+ dB and you can have hearing damageWe see a narrow band of "light" frequencies but dont look into the invisible infrared laser ;) We feel low frequency vibration and up to infrared frequencies via the skin but we dont notice the excessive ultraviolet radiation exposure until the "sunburn" shows up.
Millions of years of evolution have designed us to be aware of what naturally occurs in nature and to warn us of such dangers... Hi Hz electricity isnt one of the normal hazards found in everyday living... especially before electricity was mechanically produced.
As fas as streamer strikes to a finger... I could agree on hi current density at the strike point thus resulting in a higher heat dissapation into the finger at that point ( possibly one reacts to the instant heat than hi Hz electricity) But one must consider that the electricity will seek the path of least resistance ( shown to be nerve tissue and blood vessels) not too many nerves for sensing pain in those areas unlike the skin surface... so when one is holding that metal rod drawing an arc off of the toroid, consider the "amount" of electrons flowing thru a body and what they are ripping thru...
Scot D futuret@xxxxxxx wrote:
Jesse, My understanding is that the nerves in the human body cannot respond fast enough to feel (sense) the high frequency currents. Nevertheless, damage to the body may be occuring.? Ther wasa long thread on this subject a couple of years ago on this list.John -----Original Message----- From: Frosty <frosty90@xxxxxxxxx> To: Tesla Coil Mailing List <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 5:50 am Subject: Re: [TCML] On a scale of one to ten... hi all, Just something I've been thinking about on this mater recently, perhaps its not the high frequency or skin effect (I very much doubt that you could apply the skin effect to a complex conductor like the human body) but the average current/energy that actually allows you to (usually) 'not feel' shocks from tesla coils. Does anyone actually have any data on what the average current in a streamer/leader from an average coil would be? I understand that the peak currents may (possibly) be rather high, but perhaps the average current is low enough not to be noticeable. Also, most would probably know that if you let a streamer strike your bare skin, you can certainly feel the point where it hits, but no (or very little) sensation anywhere else, so perhaps current density also has an important part to play, in conjuntion with or rather than the high frequency. This would explain such phenomena as being able to draw arcs to a firmly gripped screw driver (large surface area of hand= lower current density) where as streamers hitting skin can be painful (I have only tried this on small coils, and wouldnt dare even think about it on medium or bigger, remember Transtrom!), as the streamer only actually hits a small area of your skin, therefor a higher current density. Any thoughts? Cheers Jesse Frost _______________________________________________ Tesla mailing list Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla _______________________________________________ Tesla mailing list Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
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