Miles Mauldin wrote:
Hum. How much of a difference are you talking about? Our friends in Denver, CO., can make bigger sparks with the same power? My coil will perform better while a low preasure weather system is present? I can see if it were Mt. Everest where an average of 255 Torr (10-12 inHg), sea level is 760 Torr or 29.95 inHg. But do you think a difference of 4 inHg would make a noticable difference (average difference between sea level and Denver)? Miles
To a first order, breakdown voltage is proportional to density, so 15% longer in Denver vs Sea Level.
There's also different thermodynamics going on. The air is less dense, so has less thermal conductivity, which probably does something to the cooling spark channel. On the other hand the channel is at several thousand K, so radiation is probably the dominant cooling method.
_______________________________________________ Tesla mailing list Tesla@xxxxxxxxxx http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla