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If you aren't going to hurt anyone..... .... Tesla made a high voltage machine back who knows when. Maybe a google search will turn up something. It generated high voltage that walked out it's two arms which got progressively wider as you went away from the source. To get high voltage you need to store energy in an inductor (coil) by pushing current through it. The physics of the beast is such that if you attempt to immediately stop the current (like open the switch that is allowing current to flow thru it) the coil's magnetic field will start to collapse and in doing so attempt to "keep the current flowing". The way it does this is to generate "whatever voltage is necessary" (within it's limitations). So the output voltage builds and builds and builds and if there is something out there that it can find to return current to the other side (a ground) it will jump across the gap and "keep the current flowing", at a decreasing rate, till it peters out. This is how your spark plugs are fired by your ignition coil.....bigger the gap, bigger the voltage necessary to jump it. What happens on a person, is that you ground your machine and if a "grounded" person gets within it's reach, it will jump over and find ground thru them; hence they get a "whack". These are more bark than bite as the resistance of the human body (and usually internally to the coil) is such that the current is low and a one shot thing and not lethal. BUT THEIR REACTION MAY BE LETHAL so have your fun but don't hurt anything. (Like I was on a ladder working on my hot fence one day and my arm got between the hot wire and the metal barn. Like to broke my neck falling off the ladder.) You'd be surprised how many scientists are out there today as a result of doing what you are asking to do when young and developing an interest in Physics. So have your fun, learn about it but be careful and considerate. Mark
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