If you don't know what the distance is, you can't say whether current is going to flow or not -- it doesn't matter whether you're talking about dry air or copper.
On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 6:00 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > In reply to James Bowery's message of Tue, 9 Apr 2013 11:57:59 -0500: > Hi, > [snip] > >> But fundamentally, I don't expect it will work to create high voltage > >> much at all because the rocket exhaust is going to be much more > >> conductive than air. It will easily arc. > >> > > > >You're not taking into account distance. > > > Nevertheless, he may have a point. A water mist may be more conductive > than e.g. > a dry powder. Note that in real thunderstorms, lightning usually strikes > through > the rain. The device may short out through the mist itself, and the speed > of the > droplets is nothing compared to the speed of free electrons under > influence of > such a high voltage field. > However it's the sort of device that you could probably build a small > model of > without too much difficulty, to try out the concept. > > BTW there was an article on rocket powered electric generators like this in > Popular Science about 40-50 years ago. Maybe they have searchable archives? > > Regards, > > Robin van Spaandonk > > http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html > >
