Leo Lichtman wrote:
If you want to test them closer to their actual rating, you could charge two
caps to 9kv each, and then hook them in series across a single, giving you
18 kv. Doing it all with broomsticks, of course. For discharge, you could
point a steam hose in their vicinity. Again, with a long stick, and from a
good distance.

I would start by inventing remotely operated aligator clips.


Connecting differently charged caps like these together with wires
will end up with no wires and much noise. And, any resistance, from
just the wires themselves to high value resistors will burn off half the
energy transferred (if the wires live long enough to complete the
energy transfer.)

And, if you have a 0.5 uF cap charged to 18 KV, and connect it to
a discharged 1 uF cap, you would expect the final voltage to be
2.25 KV, I think, due to the smaller cap value (2 1 uF caps in series)
charging the 1 uF, and the loss of energy on transfer. This is a
standard exam problem.

Jon