Setting table row height

I have this code:

<table class="topics" >
    <tr>
        <td style="white-space: nowrap; padding: 0 5px 0 0; color:#3A5572; font-weight: bold;">Test</td>
        <td style="padding: 0 4px 0 0;">1.0</td>
        <td>abc</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>

        <td style="white-space: nowrap; padding: 0 5px 0 0; color:#3A5572; font-weight: bold;">test2</td>
        <td style="padding: 0 4px 0 0;">1.3</td>
        <td>def</td>
    </tr>
</table>

The rows are spaced too far apart. I want the lines closer together.

What I did was to add the following CSS but it doesn't seem to change anything.

.topics tr { height: 14px; }

What am I doing wrong?

try this:

.topics tr { line-height: 14px; }

try setting the attribute for td so:

.topic td{ height: 14px };