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Re: stepped leaders





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|From: "tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com"-at-PMDF-at-PAXMB1
|To: Benson Barry; "Tesla-list-subscribers-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com"-at-PMDF-at-PAXMB1
|Subject: Re: stepped leaders
|Date: Thursday, August 22, 1996 11:25AM
|
<SNIP>
| The questions which come to my mind are:
|> 1. Does each zigzag represent one ring-up of the secondary?
|> 2. If 1 is true , is each zigzag added at the toroid end of the spark or
|> at the far end of the spark?
|> 3 Why the random lengths ? The secondary obviously rings for hundreds of
|> cycles....it is very high Q.
|>
|> Answers to these questions seem to bear heavily on the ion cloud which is
|> proposed to exist around the toroid and how it affects the toroidal
|> discharge and more importantly, at least to me, exactly what makes spark
|> grow to the longest possible length.
|> 1. Is the spark current (power) or voltage driven (dependent)?
|
|The spark grows due to the ion cloud which is a both a function of
|voltage & power!  Voltage is needed to break down the air in the first
|place.  The size of the arc channel and the number of ions in it are
|related to the current in the arc which is inturn related to the power
|input.
|R Hull
|
|
|> 2. Why does a spark once started....cease ?
|
|The question of the century!!!  Still workin' on this one.
|R Hull
|
Could plasma instabilities and fluctuations on the power line come to bear 
on this in
addition to the detuning and resultant reduction in power transfer from the
capacitance of the long spark in parallel with other competing processes 
(streamers)?

                                   Barry