Editing Tesla coil (section)

===Education and entertainment===
[[File:Electrumcrop.jpg|thumb|''[[Electrum (sculpture)|Electrum]]'' sculpture, the world's largest Tesla coil. Builder Eric Orr is visible sitting inside the hollow spherical high-voltage electrode.]]

Tesla coils are displayed as attractions at [[science museum]]s and electronics fairs, and are used to demonstrate principles of high-frequency electricity in science classes in schools and colleges.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ples |first=Marek |date=2021-09-14 |title=Lab Snapshots by Marek Ples: Miniature Solid State Tesla Coil |url=https://weirdscience.eu/historical/?id=0#5 |access-date=2023-07-03 |website=weirdscience.eu}}</ref>

Since they are simple enough for an amateur to make, Tesla coils are a popular student [[science fair]] project, and are homemade by a large worldwide community of hobbyists. Builders of Tesla coils as a hobby are called "coilers". They attend "coiling" conventions where they display their home-made Tesla coils and other high-voltage devices.<ref name="Gurstelle">{{cite book
 | last1 = Gurstelle
 | first1 = William 
 | title = Adventures from the Technology Underground
 | publisher = Crown/Archetype 
 | date = 2009
 | pages = 81-90
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=EUvh6Z2MzuAC&q=%22tesla+coil%22&pg=PA72
 | isbn = 978-0307510655
 }}</ref><ref name="TCBA">{{cite web
  | title = Home page
  | work = Tesla Coil Builders Association
  | website = 
  | publisher = Tesla Universe
  | date = 2025
  | url = https://teslauniverse.com/build/tcba-newsletter
  | format = 
  | doi = 
  | accessdate = 16 February 2025}}</ref><ref name="Tilbury1"/> Low-power Tesla coils are also sometimes used as a high-voltage source for [[Kirlian photography]].

The current world's largest Tesla coil is a 130,000-watt unit built by Greg Leyh and [[Eric Orr]], part of a {{convert|38|ft|m|adj=mid|-tall}} sculpture titled ''[[Electrum (sculpture)|Electrum]]'' owned by [[Alan Gibbs]] and currently residing in a private sculpture park at Kakanui Point near [[Auckland]], New Zealand.<ref name="Goldsmith"/><ref name="Electrum Project"/> Another very large Tesla coil, designed and built by Syd Klinge, is shown every year at the [[Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival]] in Coachella, California.<ref name="PBSSoCal">{{cite web
  | last = Gottlieb
  | first = Benjamin
  | title = Beyond the Snail: The Art and Imagination of the Coachella Festival
  | publisher = PBS SoCal
  | date = 24 April 2013
  | url = https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/artbound/beyond-the-snail-the-art-and-imagination-of-the-coachella-festival
  | accessdate = 16 February 2025}}</ref>

Tesla coils can also be used to generate sounds, including music, by modulating the system's effective "break rate" (i.e., the rate and duration of high power RF bursts) via [[MIDI]] data and a control unit. The actual MIDI data is interpreted by a microcontroller which converts the MIDI data into a [[pulse-width modulation|PWM]] output which can be sent to the Tesla coil via a fiber optic interface.An extensive outdoor musical concert has demonstrated using Tesla coils during the Engineering Open House (EOH) at the [[University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign]]. The Icelandic artist [[Björk]] used a Tesla coil in her song "Thunderbolt" as the main instrument in the song. The musical group [[ArcAttack]] uses modulated Tesla coils and a man in a chain-link suit to play music.