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Re: standing waves, and 1/4 wave resonance

Hi Ramsey,

Your water pool analogy for standing waves is pretty accurate.  You start a
wave going and then periodicaly "push" it at just the right time so the
wave grows larger and larger.

1/4 wave resonance is more complex but just imagine a rock suspened from a
string.  You give the rock a little periodic push and you can get it
swinging.  The tied end of the string is like ground since it never moves.
The rock end swings the most like the voltage at the top of a Tesla coil.
If you look at a sine wave, the tied end is similar to the zero phase point
of the wave and the rock corresponds to the 1/4 full wave or 90 degree
point.  This is a little over simplified but it is the basic idea.

Tesla thought that the wire length needed to be 1/4 of the wavelength of a
full cycle in a Tesla coil for best results.  However, we (at least I)
think that other factors or more important as I have discussed before.  Few
people worry about wire lengths being at 1/4 the wavelength anymore.

	Terry



At 12:11 AM 2/16/99 EST, you wrote:
>	These two topics have been discussed on the list for some time now, and I am
>yet to adiquately understand either of them.  If any can offer difenitions
and
>analagies.
>
>	I have now idea what standing waves are, but as I under stand it 1/4 wave
>resonance is where the length of the wire is the exact length that the
current
>travels in the first 1/4 of the wave.  If I can visualize this correctly the
>only analogy I can produce is this.  Say you have a pool of water, and you
>push the water in one direction, the wave will return, travel a little
further
>and resonate a little, which can be prepuated by the pushing at the correct
>time.  Is this a fairly decent analigy?  If not please offer an annalogy that
>might be more accurate.
>
>Ramsey
>
>