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.

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