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Re: Capacitor charge, were is it?



>Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 13:40:49 -0800
>From: pgantt-at-ix-dot-netcom-dot-com
>To: tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com
>Subject: Re: Capacitor charge, were is it?
>

>>[snip to save Chip's eyes]
>The vacuum diode conducts in one direction only because the plate is charged 
>positively and the electrons are charged negatively. 
>
[another half page snip]

No,
	A thermionic diode rectifies because the work function of the
cathode is (much) lower than the work function of the anode.  If you
replace both of these different objects with like objects (same work
function), the device will no longer have a preferred conduction
direction.

	The vacuum is not the conductor of current. The flow of
electrons through the vacuum is.


> If the vacuum were not 
>a conductor, no electrons would flow in either direction.  Make sense?

The vacuum does not impede the flow of electrons but, it is not the
conductor either. Until the electrons are ripped out of a material, no
current flows.

	jim