Re: Math help...

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Malcolm Watts by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <m.j.watts-at-massey.ac.nz>

Hi Josh,

On 8 Jul 01, at 18:09, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "David L Wilson by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <daveandcynthia-at-juno-dot-com>
> 
> 
> 
> > Luc,
> > 
> > It can be shown that if a capacitor is charged through a resistor, 
> > and if
> > the charge time is sufficient to virtually fully charge the cap 
> > (Tcharge >
> > 3RC), then the series resistor will dissipate the SAME amount of 
> > energy as
> > the energy that ends up being stored in the capacitor. Knowing this
> > simplifies the problem a bit. 
> > 
> 
> Wow!  Since all TC's have at least some stray resistance in the wiring of
> the tank circuit, does this mean any Tesla Coil can never be more than
> 50% efficient?  It seems so if the same amount of energy delivered to the
> tank capacitor is dissipated in the wiring.  Would someone correct me if
> this is wrong, as I am a little confused by it.

Not true. More specifically, only true if pri-sec energy trades are 
allowed to persist and the output discharges are slight and 
definitely not attached to grounded obects. A sigle pri-sec transfer 
can get around 90% - this I have actually measured. There are a lot 
of variables which make that figure an inexact one. Aside from the 
output spark, most system losses occur in the primary gap.

Regards,
malcolm