Re: Ionization at 80 eV? (Yes)

[Gerald Feldman <gfeldman@uci.edu>]

At 07:28 PM 5/16/97 -0500, you wrote:

.... Just having an electric field of X
>volts does not mean that you will have an electron with a kinetic energy
>of X eV. Think about it .... an ordinary electric wall socket has 117
>volts ac, but no ionization.
>
>Cheers, Wes
>
>-- 
>Wesley R. Van Pelt, Ph.D., CIH, CHP                KF2LG
>President, Van Pelt Associates, Inc.     
>Consulting in radiological health and safety.
>mailto:VanPeltW@IDT.net        
>http://shell.idt.net/~vanpeltw/index.html
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wes:

Just put the wires of your electric wall socket close enough together to
overcome the dielectric properties of the air between them and you
certainly will get ionization.  Arc welders do it all the time.

More to the point, a free electron with a kinetic potential of 80eV isn't
going to go any appreciable distance except in a very good vacuum, and is
therefore not a risk..

Gerald Feldman
gfeldman@uci.edu