# @stem_antics on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/De7wi5tPukW
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/76863643-stem-antics-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/e8fbd5974a.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-10-25T22:16:22.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Stem Antics (@stem_antics) — https://gondola.cc/stem_antics

## Caption

A Tesla coil has no speaker. The lightning is the speaker.

Every musical Tesla coil is a masterclass in modulation. The coil itself resonates far above human hearing, typically somewhere between 50 and 400 kHz, generating hundreds of thousands of volts at the top terminal. That carrier frequency is completely inaudible. The music comes from switching the entire system on and off at audio rates.

How the sound is made:
- An interrupter gates the drive circuit, firing short bursts of RF energy
- Each burst ignites a plasma streamer that heats the surrounding air in microseconds
- The rapid thermal expansion launches a pressure wave, effectively a miniature thunderclap
- Fire 440 bursts per second and the air itself produces an A4

Modern singing coils are almost always DRSSTCs, dual resonant solid state Tesla coils. IGBT H-bridges drive a tuned primary tank circuit in resonance with the secondary, and a MIDI interrupter translates note data directly into burst timing. Repetition rate sets pitch; pulse width sets loudness. Polyphony is achieved by interleaving bursts from multiple notes, constrained by thermal limits on the switching transistors, which is why duty cycles typically remain in the low single digit percentages.

Nikola Tesla patented his resonant transformer in 1891 while chasing wireless power transmission. More than a century later, performers such as ArcAttack brought singing coils to mainstream audiences, including a run on America’s Got Talent in 2010.

The result is a loudspeaker with no cone, no magnet, and no diaphragm, only ionised air expanding and collapsing in time with the music.

Physics does not need an instrument. It needs a frequency.

#stemantics #teslacoil #electricalengineering #plasmaphysics #stemeducation

## Stats

- **Views:** 26,388
- **Likes:** 415
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 6

## Credits

No public credits are recorded here. This does not identify who made the post.

## Tags

teslacoil, stemeducation, plasmaphysics, electricalengineering, stemantics

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