Tesla Circuits

This is a fun and useful circuit for demonstrating high frequency high voltge. It can produce up to about 30KV, depending on the transformer used. It is cheap and easy to make, thanks to the standard TV flyback transformer used. It can power LASERS (although I have never tried), demonstrate St.Elmo`s fire, and even cause a fluorescent bulb to light from as much as 2 feet away...

Energy-sucking Radio Antennas

Here's something that has always bugged me: light waves are about 5000 Angstroms in wavelength, while atoms are more like 1 Angstrom across. Atoms are thousands of times smaller than light waves, yet atoms obviously interact very strongly with light. How can they do this? Perhaps they get around the problem by employing Quantum Mechanics (photon-physics rather than EM waves?) There must be some explanation...