A tesla coil is a device invented by Nikola Tesla capable of generating extremely large voltages at a high frequency. Nikola developed this device in his search for a means of providing wireless energy to everyone at no cost. Although this purpose was never realized due to its impracticality and inability to turn a profit; the physics involved in the tesla coil is truly remarkable.
A tesla coil is basically a transformer, where the secondary coil is a tower consisting of many turns of wire (approx. 2000 turns) and a primary coil which contains few turns of a thick wire. An alternating current is applied to the primary coil, and due to Faraday’s law of induction, a current is induced in the secondary coil. The current in the secondary coil, however, is at a much higher voltage than the primary coil due to the significant increase in the number of turns in a thinner gauge wire. The current supplied to the primary coil is created by a high-frequency resonant circuit. The secondary coil is specifically tuned to the high frequency of the primary coil. This is done by adding a metallic toroid, seen at the tops of tesla coils which acts as a capacitor. The charge at the toroid becomes so incredibly high that the electrons become free and ionizes the air in a beautiful light show.
(NB: This is a repost from my previous blog)
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