I believe breakdown resistance across 1" air gap is 10,000 v

[Gary Helfert]

This is an academic question among my coworkers. Some believe it is
infinite, however I believe at some voltage the electrons will jump the gap.
Any ideas?

 

[John Popelish]

Gary Helfert wrote:

This is an academic question among my coworkers. Some believe it is
infinite, however I believe at some voltage the electrons will jump the gap.
Any ideas?

Since vacuum contains no electrons, it cannot break down and have its
electrons start to travel under the influence of an electric field, as
matter filled dielectrics can.
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~vawter/PhysicsNet/Topics/Capacitors/Diaelectric.html

Put a pair of surfaces in a vacuum and apply a potential difference
across them, and the breakdown involves the release of electrons from
the more negative surface, a completely different process than
dielectric breakdown. But once those electrons are released, they
travel, unimpeded through vacuum.

--
John Popelish