[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: "real" lightning and TC lightning...



Original poster: "Justin Hays by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <pyrotrons2000-at-yahoo-dot-com>

Hi Adam and All,

> I was just wondering, what is the difference between "real" 
> lightning and (the average)TC Lightning discharge (i.e. voltage,
> frequency, temp). Also, are the discharges from a TC plasma? If so,
> what are the characteristics of plasma? 
> Thanks 
> Adam

They are very similar except that they are completely different ; )

Lightning:

* is a capacitor discharge (GND, air, cloud base for cloud-ground
lighting bolt....or cloud, air, cloud for cloud-cloud "sheet"
lighting")
* Many megavolts before the strike, many megaamps during the strike.
* "fundamental" resonant ringdown of the lighting bolt is generally
around 300kHz or so (varies widely) and contains harmonics well up
into the UHF region (many hundreds of Mhz) or more.
* temperatures in the arc channel are some 50,000 degrees
* Hook an oscilloscope to the top of a tesla coil resonator during a
lighting storm. Set the V/div. control to around 5mV/div or so.
You'll notice the lighting discharge rings the resonator quite well!

Tesla Coil discharge:

* is a capacitor discharge (topload/air/GND)
* hot white spark temperatures of 50,000 degrees or something
* No-one knows what the voltage is
* Peak currents of a few amps to hundreds of amps or more
* frequency is determined by the values of L and C in the secondary
circuit. Around 30kHz for huge coils, 2Mhz for the very tiniest.

Van De Graaf Generator discharge: (might as well add it here!)

* is a capacitor discharge
* is DC (direct current) and will "charge things up" unlike an AC
discharge
* Relatively small peak currents during the discharge, with very very
little average "charging" current.

A plasma is generally defined as "positive and negative ions existing
at high energy levels and/or temperatures". Lighting is a form of
plasma, so is a tesla coil discharge, so is a flame from a match or
torch!

All plasma's are conductive. Our website www.hvguy-dot-com has a video of
a 4" coil, that we have poured rubbing alcohol on top of. You can see
the conductive nature of the flame, by the way the arcs come out of
the top. You can also start a spark gap firing by putting a candle
between the electrodes.

Take care,

Justin Hays
KC5PNP
Email: justin-at-hvguy-dot-com
Website: www.hvguy-dot-com

_