Air resistance and voltage

[Kubanator]

If I were to take a 1.5V battery, use a transformer to put that up to 10KV, or something much higher, would that current then be able to flow through the air?

 

[blueroomelectronics]

What are you trying to build? An ionizer?

 

[Kubanator]

I don't know. It's just a random question I have. Here are a couple more.

Would it make a spark between two wires?

Would it be dangerous? (I'm guessing no, but just in case)

 

[blueroomelectronics]

You can make a spark with a 1.5V battery. How far a spark distance are you looking for?

 

[Kubanator]

I'm not actually planning anything. These are just random questions to further my knowledge of general electronics. Is there an approximate method of calculating it?

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Why not just read a book on electronics? HV stuff is more advanced if you don't have the basics.
Books about Electronics

 

[Kubanator]

Is there a particular book you would recommend?

 

[blueroomelectronics]

It's been years since I took basic electronics in school. I really enjoyed the Forest M. Mims III titles.
FORREST MIMS GETTING STARTED IN ELECTRONICS | BOOKS | ELECTRONICS | SCIENCE FAIR PROJECTS

 

[Boncuk]

A rule of thumb for air resistance:

1KV of voltage arc over a distance of 1mm. So to isolate well for 10KV the minimum distance of traces and/or wires should be 10mm.

This value is valid for a relative humidity of 70%. For higher humidity add up on the distance. 12.5mm should suffice for any humidity.

Boncuk

 

[Forrest M. Mims III]

It's been years since I took basic electronics in school. I really enjoyed the Forest M. Mims III titles.
FORREST MIMS GETTING STARTED IN ELECTRONICS | BOOKS | ELECTRONICS | SCIENCE FAIR PROJECTS

Thanks, Bill, for the kind comments about my books. I learned much about electronics from designing and testing the circuits in them.

Forrest

Forrest M. Mims III
Forrest M. Mims III
twitter.com/fmims

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Hello Forest and welcome to the forums. Yes I still have your old RS notebooks around.

 

[RadioRon]

Thanks, Bill, for the kind comments about my books. I learned much about electronics from designing and testing the circuits in them.

Forrest

Forrest M. Mims III
Forrest M. Mims III
twitter.com/fmims

Hi Forrest. I've been engineering electronics for over 25 years and still occasionally refer to my copy of "Engineer's Notebook" from Radio Shack. It is very handy. Thank you.

 

[Kubanator]

If I were to take a transformer, and up the voltage of the battery to something in the range of +1MV, and then take two wires, attach them to this high voltage, and hold them in proximity of each other, will a spark jump across the wires, similar to a tesla coil?

 

[Boncuk]

Are you talking about 1MegaVolt (1,000,000V)?

If so I doubt you can make that using battery power.

 

[Kubanator]

If I take 1 Volt and use a transformer to up it to 1MV, it will conversely drop the Amperage to 1uA.

 

[Boncuk]

I also doubt the enamel on the copper wire will be good enough to isolate that high voltage.

 

[dknguyen]

If I were to take a transformer, and up the voltage of the battery to something in the range of +1MV, and then take two wires, attach them to this high voltage, and hold them in proximity of each other, will a spark jump across the wires, similar to a tesla coil?

I think it would actually jump from the first wire to into hand, flow through your chest and heart and out your other hand into the second wire before you could get the wires close enough to produce a spark. BUt if it didn't, yeah it would make a spark- a continuous one at that assuming you could actually get 1MV from the power source.

 

[ecerfoglio]

If I take 1 Volt and use a transformer to up it to 1MV, it will conversely drop the Amperage to 1uA.

There are transformers that use (or generate) 500 KV - but they are Huge .... they are used to feed power transmission lines. And the current (amperage) is several amper, not 1 µA.

And Kubanator plans to feed his transformer with a battery, which outputs 1 V DC (direct current) - Transformers are AC devices, they don´t work with DC

 

[Kubanator]

There are transformers that use (or generate) 500 KV - but they are Huge .... they are used to feed power transmission lines. And the current (amperage) is several amper, not 1 µA.

And Kubanator plans to feed his transformer with a battery, which outputs 1 V DC (direct current) - Transformers are AC devices, they don´t work with DC

Thanks for the explanation.

 

[zenador]

And Kubanator plans to feed his transformer with a battery, which outputs 1 V DC (direct current) - Transformers are AC devices, they don´t work with DC

True, transformers operate on AC, but you can power a transformer with a 1.5V battery. This is how camera flashes operate.

Disposable cameras with a flash take 1.5V (from a AA battery) and produce 300V through the first transformer. This is accomplished with resistors and a transistor. This oscillates the DC supply as it enters the small transformer. The 300V output is used to charge the large capacitor. That's the high-pitched "whine" you hear when charging the flash, the transistor switching very fast. When the shutter button is pressed, the 300V cap discharges to the cathode in the xenon bulb, and to an even smaller transformer on the board. This smaller transformer steps up the 300V to over 1kV. The 1kV output is sent to a copper backing behind the flash bulb, ionizing the xenon, increasing the conductivity of the gas, causing the 300V to the cathode to discharge - Flash.

I have over driven these transformers to 12VDC, using properly rated transistors. The core saturates faster and heats faster, so continuous operation is not recommended. 7VDC is the most I would run for extended periods.

If you add a Cockroft-Walton Multiplier or a Marx Generator to the output, you could easily attain voltages produced with a Flyback Transformer. Also keep in mind these are extremely low amperages. It may not kill you, but the extremely high voltages hurt like nothing else. 10kV to your finger will make your hand numb for several minutes.