Re: [TCML] Extrodinarily Rudimentary Question From Newbiest Naif

[nickobert testein <nickobert.testein@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Jim and thanks for responding.

Its interesting you mentioning lightning because atmospheric
electricity is closer to my knowledge base than artificially produced
currents. I have been researching static fields, both environmentally
and artificially produced and I wrote because coming from a geophysics
point of view, the arc would appear to be arcing to the atmosphere
itself.

I wanted to ask this question to see if there were a consensus among
Tesla experts and if there wasn't, I wanted to propose a simple
experiment which should to illustrate the actual dynamics of a "sky
arc".

A Not sure how tight you are with geophysics but bear with me if its elementary.

What we call atmospheric electricity is also known as the potential
earth gradient (PEG). PEG is the potential electric field difference
which exists between the surface of the earth and the ionosphere. For
every foot nearly a hundred volts on average. During an approaching
storm it can be in the thousands.

To find out whether a Tesla coil is indeed arcing to the atmospheric
potential one could count the number of sky arcs over a given time,
then do the test again when then the atmospheric potential has been
altered. If the coil is arcing to the atmospheric potential then the
number of arcs would vary accordingly.

Fortunately, nature has made it quite simple since the field naturally
varies during the course of a day. These fluctuations could be taken
advantage of for this test. Finding these fluctuations can be made
quite simple with a fiber glass fishing rod and s couple pith balls.
Depending on the season and the weather, it would be quite easy to
observe the pith balls diverge to their furthest or closest and then
fire up the coil accordingly.

That is pretty much the experiment I have been planning to set up but
I don't have access to a coil.


One During a storm it can be in the thousands of volts. Over the
course of the day it fluctuates slightly. Over a year and through each
season it also fluctuates slightly.



 I asked because it made sense to me that the arc was arcing to the
potential gradient itself. It would be interesting to conduct some
outdoor tests to determine the number of sky arcs at different
potentials. Over the course of a day, the potential fluctuates, so if
one were to count the number of arcs during these fluctuations we
would know for certain whether a Tesla coil is actually arcing to the
earth potential gradient or not. SBecause of My research has been with
static fields in the isolation of pure thrust

On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 2:03 PM, Jim Lux <jimlux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 4/10/11 8:29 AM, nickobert testein wrote:
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> My name is Nick. Just starting to get my head around your concepts. I
>> just like reading your discussions right now but if its okay with
>> someone on training wheels with a question. I won't do this often
>> because its obnoxious walking when you'd rather run but here it is:
>> when a Tesla coil arcs in the air and not to ground, what exactly is
>> the arc arcing to?
>>
>
> Not a silly question at all..and one that doesn't have a "good" answer, as
> well.
>
> it's arcing to nowhere in particular.  You've got a buildup of charge, that
> results in an increase in voltage, the electric field near the topload
> exceeds the breakdown strength of air (3MV/meter) and a spark (aka leader)
> starts.  current flows into that spark as it grows.. That means charge is
> moving off the topload into the spark.
> Meanwhile since a spark has some resistance, the current flowing dissipates
> heat, so the energy goes into making the air hot (and glowing!)..  The spark
> keeps growing, as long as there's charge to keep "filling" the ionized
> channel.
>
> However, eventually, the charge runs out, and the spark cools off, and it's
> all over, without the spark ever getting to somewhere.
>
> If you look at how lightning propagates, it's exactly the same (on a
> somewhat larger scale)
>
>
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