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Yes. A pointed electrode can be melted into a transparent polymer, such as acrylic (polymethylmethacrylate), epoxy, or polycarbonate and a flat electrode applied to the opposite side of the polymer. When the pointed electrode is energized from a HV AC source or from a pulsed HV source, charges...

Dielectric breakdown is not always damaging. For example, when it occurs in gases and many liquid dielectrics, the dielectric can recover all (or most) of its previous insulating capability once the arc or spark is extinguished. In gases, the conductive plasma channel taken by the discharge...

As Physguy indicated, dielectric breakdown is primarily a function of the applied electrical field versus the dielectric strength of the oil, and is virtually independent of electrode resistivity for good electrical conductors (such as metals, alloys, and carbon/graphite). However, once...

An electromagnet will behave the same as a magnet only when you power the electromagnet from a true DC source, such as a battery. If it is powered from a simple home-made DC power supply, then you're apparently getting some "ripple" current into the electromagnet - a portion of the AC waveform...

You might be able to do 2 cm. Make your ladder adjustable and lock it at the point where you get the best results. Because the circuit you referenced is low power, you may not be able to generate much heat in the arc, so you might not be able to separate the rods very much at the top...

Hi, You want to make sure that the gap at the bottom of the ladder will spark over so that the arc can start. Unfortunately, the above analysis has a math error that makes it off by a factor of 10. The DC breakdown voltage for a 1 cm sphere gap is actually closer to 30 kV (actually an...

That's the correct approach. The energy scales as the E-field squared, so quadrupling the energy doubles the required E-field, so the gas dielectric must be able to withstand a field of 6 kV/mm without breaking down.

Making a coil that self-resonates at 7 Hz would require a coil of truly Herculean proportions - NOT practical. There are a number of Tesla Coil design tools that can estimate the self-resonant frequency of a secondary coil. An easy to use, and accurate, program is Bart Anderson's on-line JavaTC...

That's not an odd question at all. It turns out that ALL coils will resonate at some frequency. That's because there is always some capacitance between turns and also stray capacitance to ground. The combination of these capacitances and the inductance of the coil form an LC circuit which will...