Re: Van de Graaff /Pelletron (fwd)

[Steven Roys <sroys@xxxxxxxx>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 22:11:37 -0200
From: Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz <acmq@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: High Voltage list <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Van de Graaff /Pelletron (fwd)

High Voltage list wrote:

> From: dave pierson <davep@xxxxxxxx>

> >and isn't the maximum output voltage for a given length limited by
> >breakdown between the pellets?
>      Sort of.
>
>     There is no voltage difference between the pellets,
>     as such, that is (thought experiment):
>
>         IF the belt were removed, there would be no difference.

Don't mix charge with voltage. The pellets along the chain have all
the same charge, but their potentials are evidently different,
because the capacitances between the pellets and the "ground"
decrease as they go up. The voltages vary from a low value at the
bottom to the terminal potential at the top (or even higher after
they enter the terminal). Exactly as in a belt.

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz