[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Re: Evaluation needed (fwd)





---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 16:45:16 -0500
From: Thomas McGahee <tom_mcgahee-at-sigmais-dot-com>
To: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Re: Evaluation needed



----------
> From: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> To: 'Tesla List' <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> Subject: Evaluation needed
> Date: Thursday, February 12, 1998 12:56 AM
> 
> 
> ----------
> From:  Dan Ressler [SMTP:danz_da_man-at-hotmail-dot-com]
> Sent:  Wednesday, February 11, 1998 5:14 PM
> To:  tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject:  Evaluation needed
> 
> Hey all,

Humongous Snip...

> Just as a final thought, I turned in my tesla coil for my high school 
> science fair project, and the teacher was scared out of his wits that I 
> made this ting with his signature on the forms, he is barring me from 
> entering the real science fair because he thinks it is too 
> dangerous.......still I think he was very impressed
> Dan
> Danz_da_man-at-hotmail-dot-com
> 
Dan,
There are several possible explanations for your science teacher's
response to your Tesla Coil project.

A) He may have seen a genuine safety problem. This might not be
directly related to Tesla Coils per se, but to your particular
implementation. As an electronics teacher (Since 1970) I have had 
a few projects that I had to ban from being *operated* at the science
fair due to legitimate concerns related to electrical safety. I
might also mention that not *one* of these was a Tesla Coil, though
we have built many of them here in the electronics shop. I insist
on a high degree of safety, and for good reason. Did you have 
exposed 120 VAC connections? Could a person come in contact with any
part of the coil while it was operating? When you demonstrated it,
did you approach the Tesla coil in too casual a way?

B) The teacher may not have ever seen a Tesla Coil before and was just
reacting out of fear. You have to allay such fears by showing a
thorough understanding of your project and good common sense in
its presentation....  with a special eye towards safety. I only let
my students run Tesla coils in an environment where safety is first.
We have great fun with our presentations, but we also exercise
great care.

C) The teacher may have a totally unwarranted fear of your project
based solely on what he perceives as BIG SPARKS. Sort of like 
ARCOPHOBIA. Such people need treatment.

Hope this helps.
Fr. Tom McGahee
Elctronics Instructor
Don Bosco Technical High School
Paterson, NJ  07502