Re: 1/4 wave theory

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

Original poster: "Paul Nicholson by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <paul-at-abelian.demon.co.uk>

dwp asked:
> Should the secondary resonate as an electrical 1/4 wave?

It doesn't have to.  You have other modes available, but they all
require more stored energy for a given top voltage, and all but the
1/4 wave have unpleasant voltages appearing within the winding.

The stored energy is roughly proportional to the number of quarter-
waves, eg the 3/4 wave would require 3 times the bang size to reach
the same topvolts as a 1/4 wave.

> I tend towards:
>         Secondary should resonate.

Yes, we hope so!  Of course, it can resonate in an infinite number
of modes, just like a guitar string.  Choose how you pluck it to
get the mode you want to play with, ie tune primary to desired mode.
--
Paul Nicholson
--