Re: Definitions of High Voltage

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Christopher Boden by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <chrisboden-at-hotmail-dot-com>

Nope, the are Contact Arcs, meaning that the two conductors had to actually 
TOUCH before an arc was established. This is the same way an Arc Welder 
works. For anything below 340VAC they have to touch for it to arc, above 
that and they will cause air to breakdown. The higher the voltage, the 
farther it will jump (i.e. exceed a greater breakdown strength of air). Get 
a 15kV NST and a 2kV MOT and not the differences in how close they have to 
be to arc. If you wanna get really interesting, note the differences in arc 
distance when you use a pair of needles, vs a pair of smooth toroids (or 
Tablespoons ).

>Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
><Kidd6488-at-aol-dot-com>
>
>As
>per North's paper (High Voltage Insulation, pg1), any voltage below
>approximately 340V will not discharge through
>air, regardless of spacing or barometric pressure
>
>what about 120 VAC? ever unplug sumthing while its still on? Those are the
>same sparks you get from 12kV...
>---------------------------------------
>Jonathon Reinhart
>hot-streamer-dot-com/jonathon





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