|
|
Finn Lassen wrote:
Hmm... and here I thought that vacumn was a better insulator than air ...
Why is the air pumped out of lightbulbs?
This had me confused for a long time to, Finn. The way it was explained to me is that a VACUUM would be a better insulator. But you don't have a vacuum, you have a thin atmosphere. To basically short out, enough air molecules have to get ionized to form an alternate path to ground. In thick sea-level air, there are so many molecules competing for the limited ionizing energy and so many non-ionized molecules getting in the way that the charge is released in the cylinder before an alternate path can be formed. In the rarified air at altitudes, the fewer molecules take charge quicker and are much nimbler so that the alternate path beats the spark plug.
If anyone has a better story, I'm willing to listen.
--
,|"|"|, |
----===<{{(oQo)}}>===---- Dyke Delta |
o| d |o www.ernest.isa-geek.org |
|
|