Re: Output

["Jim Lux" <jimlux-at-jpl.nasa.gov> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

>
>I do recall a Dicovery Channel special on lightning that had a clip
>showing Richard Hull's 11-D magnifier in operation for the man-
>made lightning segment and the narrator stated, "these 2 million
>volt sparks leap 10 ft. thru the air and are an awsome reminder of
>the raw power of electricity". I know because I have it on tape. Al-
>so, John Couture's "Tesla Coil Construction Guide" on pg. 14-9
>has a "Sphere Spark vs Kilovolts" log graph which seems to show
>that ~50" represents 1 million volts. I believe this is referring to
>electrostatic DC charges built up on very large radius spheres,
>though and was the only comparison data available to John C. -at-
>the time of printing (1994). If I'm not mistaken, John stated this
>himself? Also, this same graph shows that 100" sphere sparks
>are considerably less than 2 million volts ( KVs vs spark length
>is NOT a linear progression).



Sphere gap vs voltage is a fairly linear function as long as the gap is MUCH
smaller than the diameter of the sphere.  But, as the gap starts to get to
be a signficant fraction of the sphere radius, it gets really nonlinear.
Take a look at http://home.earthlink-dot-net/~jimlux/hv/sphgap.htm for a much
fuller discussion, and a link to a standard sphere gap table.


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