RE: Variable Capacitance and Inductance

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

Original poster: "David Thomson by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dave-at-volantis-dot-org>

Hi Terry,

>>Tesla is also saying that the measured capacitance will change over time,
regardless of which method of measurement or calculation is used.

>"i" would disagree that a sphere's capacitance inside a metal shell will
change anymore than a capacitors's value will change for no apparent
external reason.  If the fields are not affected, the capacitance will not
be affected.

Since Tesla was saying the sun and moon affect the capacitance and
inductance, he must have been referring to their electromagnetic fields.  In
addition, since he mentions direct sunlight also affects capacitance, he
must also be referring to some kind of photoelectric effect (i.e. sun
heating the copper or photons being absorbed by the copper.)  It would still
be worthwhile to electrostatically shield a capacity and measure the effect
of a magnetic field upon it.  I would expect that any effect, if at all,
would be very minimal and require a very sensitive capacitance meter.

>>What are these facts you are referring to?

>The fact that "elevation" alone is not the reason.

Unless I missed something, Tesla didn't say elevation alone was the cause of
varying capacitance.  I also noticed that in his CSN he was taking note of
capacitance variances in the order of 1.6%.

>A precision shielded vacuum capacitor will measure the same value deep in
the Earth, on the Earth's surface, high in the sky, or in outer space.

Exactly, or very close?  Where has this test been done.  If I see the data
supporting no change, I would quickly admit Tesla's error and move on.

>Paul and I have not written up a nice report yet.  We were exploring what
was making the variations but there have been no real controlled tests yet
to isolate the causes.  There "appears" to be some obvious correlations
however.  Seasons affect humidity and temperature.  I am pretty unconvinced
about the moon ;-))

That's cool.  We can all go into an experiment with preconceived ideas.
It's rigorous treatment of the data that will have the last word.  And
frankly, I don't care what the truth is, I just want to be certain that we
know we're looking at the truth.

Dave