DANGER! 17,000 VOLTS!

From: Huw Davies <H.Davies_at_latrobe.edu.au>
Date: Wed Jun 3 20:17:26 1998

At 12:58 AM 04-06-98 +0100, Tony Duell wrote:

>Not _that_ far - less than an inch, I'd have thought. And remember that
>the EHT side is pretty well insulated, so you're not going to touch it by
>accident.

I seem to recall that the ionization potential of air at STP is something
like 10KV/cm, so 17KV might nearly jump an inch on a good day with a tail
wind.

If you really need to know I'll give my Dad a ring - he's a retired
ionization physicist who used to play with real big Van der Graf generators
(by really big I'm talking 10m tall and 5MeV - used to generate real big
sparks!).

I've never zapped myself with HT, but have successfully survived connecting
myself to 240V 50Hz - don't try this at home folks (or anywhere else) - it
hurts....

 Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies_at_latrobe.edu.au
 Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479
1999
 La Trobe University | "If God had wanted soccer played in the
 Melbourne Australia 3083 | air, the sky would be painted green"
Received on Wed Jun 03 1998 - 20:17:26 BST