Making lightning with a thin wire

Just thinkin' of some fun uses of my thumper.

Let's say that I have a high voltage capacitor that I can discharge at
will. If I connect it to a thin wire (24 ga or so), say a foot of it,
and put through a several kilovolt/kilojoule discharge, would the exploding wire
create enough heat to ionize air sufficiently to create lightning
strike-like spark from the cap?

Another question, can such things be viewed with an autodarkening
welding helmet. (1/20,000th of a second darkening time)

i
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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Making lightning with a thin wire
    ... Let's say that I have a high voltage capacitor that I can discharge at ... If I connect it to a thin wire, say a foot of it, ... welding helmet. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: Making lightning with a thin wire
    ... Let's say that I have a high voltage capacitor that I can discharge at ... If I connect it to a thin wire, say a foot of it, ...
    (sci.electronics.design)