🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Bs0D4v.466@helios.physics.utoronto.ca>, jamesm@helios.physics.utoronto.ca (James Mihaychuk) writes:
> In article <1992Jul23.214214.8574@microplex.com> hsk@microplex.com (Harjeet Kalsi) writes:
>>I know I've seen them in physics labs (including mine when I was in school) 
>>but forgotten what this "box" with two antennas, that has a high
>>voltage spark travelling between the antennas from bottom to top,
>>is called.
>>
>>hsk@microplex.com
> 
> My high school physics teacher told me it was called a Jacob's Ladder, although
> there might be other names.
> ---
> James Mihaychuk, indentured servant  You say your moon's in the seventh house,
> (lowly physics grad student)         But your butt spent three days on my couch
> jamesm@helios.physics.utoronto.ca    "Eternal Fatalist," the Lowest of the Low 

Yeah, that's what I've always heard it called. Now, here's a puzzler for
you. The two "antennae" are closer together at the bottom than at the top, 
and the spark starts at the bottom and travels upwards. Now, a spark prefers to
"jump" the shortest gap between two conductors. So why does the spark move up? 
(Let's see how many people REALLY listened to their high school instructor :-)

Sam Silverstein
UW-Madison Department of Physics