Re: Salt Water Resistance

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Salt Water Resistance
From: "Harri Suomalainen" <haba-at-cc.hut.fi> (by way of Terry Fritz <terryf-at-verinet-dot-com>)
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1998 13:14:22 -0600
Approved: terryf-at-verinet-dot-com

>Conclusions?  (1) Salt water is a pretty lousy conductor.  (2) At least
at
>1.5vdc, salt water resistance seems largely to be a function of contact
>area.  (3) I've got to find something better than plain salt water--NaCl
>plus epsom salts perhaps?  Copper Sulphate?

Resistance does indeed depend on conductor area (roughle linearly).
It is also inversily proportional to distance of conductors (at least
approximately when two parallel plates are used).

Smaller ions with better mobility would usually be better. I'd assume
copepr sulphate to be much worse conductor than NaCl is. You might
try something like HCl (yap, corrosion problems ahead!) or some salt
which is much more soluable in water than NaCl is.

As a thumb rule: the smaller the ion, the faster it'll move.


--
Harri Suomalainen     mailto:haba-at-cc.hut.fi

We have phone numbers, why'd we need IP-numbers? - a person in a bus