Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

i have been doing how far can sparks jump.i can only get it to jump about 5mm. i read that someone did theres and got the sparks to jump 8cm my dad said thats near impossible to do so how did they do it. is 5mm good or how far should they jump.does it make any difference how big the ball bearings are.

[Moderator note: the Science Buddies Project Idea appears at: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p032.shtml]

Take a look at the thread here:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... 249#p17252

I think that will answer your question.

A Jacob's ladder spark generator will produce a spark that grows in length as it climbs up a pair of wires. These sparks can be quite long. Please see the following web site for instructions on how to build one: http://www.instructables.com/id/Mini-Ja ... mbing-Arc/. I hope this helps.

If you want to build a Jacob's Ladder, be sure you have adult supervision and know how to handle high voltage electricity. The required high voltage power supply circuit can pack quite a wallop at the least, and could even be fatal under some circumstances