Thursday Thirteen v.6
Thirteen Things About Me in High School Since the theme this week among one of my Blogger buddies is the high school experience, I decided to glom off of her idea, since I had none of my own. Visit Pam for more tales from her personal teenage wasteland, and wish her a safe journey south to attend her 20th high school reunion. 1. I never attended a dance. Even the Sadie Hawkins dance, where the girls were supposed to ask the boys, or the Senior Prom. Since I never had a girlfriend, the choice was pretty easy. 2. There is no picture of me in the Yearbook. I protested the idea, and subsequently wound up in the back of the book with the wasteoids and losers. I had offers of neckties and jackets on photo day, but stood my ground. I can't recall why, but it just wasn't something I wanted to do. 3. I graduated #104 out of 277. Debbie Powers, the girl next to me in home room, (who thought she was so much smarter than anyone else), finished #105 and wondered, "Who cam...
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This is the same phenomenon as Jacob's Ladder. Once the arc is formed (i.e., the air is ionized), it is easier for the electricity to follow the existing arc than it is to form a new one through unionized air. However, the ionized air is hot and expands so that it is less dense than the surrounding air. That makes it float up, just like flames from a fire.
So the arc moves up and gets longer until it requires more voltage to maintain than is available. It breaks. Then if enough voltage is available, a new arc forms. In this case, the bar has moved so far (on purpose) so that a new arc cannot form and the circuit is broken.
A smaller example is the Jacob's ladder that you could see in the old 1930s Frankenstein movies. You can sometimes buy small ones at novelty shops. This is much bigger, and much cooler.