Christmas Lectures 2012 - Huge Tesla Coil

Dr Peter Wothers demonstrates the power of a huge Tesla coil as part of the 2012 Christmas Lectures.
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[@PhattyMo]

They have a leader wire on there,to focus the break-out point to (mostly) the end of the wire,and nowhere else.

[@nemosaved]

Basically a Tesla Coil is a Giant transformer, that creates such a strong electrical field between the primary and Secondary Coil that it is randomly pulling electrons straight out of the air.

[@LittleDragonLD]

Love this channel it brings out my nerdy side a lot more (I am a nerd already)

[@uriel69879]

Where would the world be without AC current? Tesla is so under rated.

[@voveve]

The air is not homogeneous so the lightning travels across the most dense and ionized part of the air, I think.

[@HamguyBacon]

@Justin McLean Its actually Throwing Electrons out into the air, if the tesla coil was Reversed , it would suck electrons in the air and back into the grid.

[@MuonMusic]

Anyone know why the lightning doesn't go all the way to the coil?

[@SonOfFurzehatt]

The purpose of the demonstration (which was omitted in this clip) was actually to show that electrical sparks generate nitrogen dioxide and ozone from the air. Everyone in the theatre could smell the gases afterwards. He could have explained how a Tesla coil works, but it's not really relevant in a Chemistry lecture.

[@Majoofi]

Why doesn't the lightning go in a straight line?

[@xSkitZx]

Kudos if you spotted that without working it out, but look up free radicals and it will open an interesting door to chemistry.

[@Charlie2531games]

1. By free, I meant no one would be charged for it because everyone would have equal access to it and charging someone for it would be unfair, as you would be unable to . 2. There are images of Tesla creating arcs larger than anything we've created with Tesla coils before. There's obviously information that he didn't make publicly available. 3. So you're saying that Marconi managing to get a patent on wireless transmission even after Tesla had publicly done it years earlier was Tesla's fault?

[@hoonnhun]

TELL US HOW IT WORKS.. IT'S COOL YET LACK OF UNDERSTANDING THE MECHANISM

[@magoomba]

because of air particles. i think

[@mrnosy1]

0:01 : FAIL??? Cl2O2??????

[@misterdinner3648]

My ears.

[@joemyerscough]

nope. it's possible. not very common but it is possible.

[@voveve]

Dichlorine Dioxide Google before posting!