RE: high voltage measurement w/ divider

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

Original poster: "brianb by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <brianb-at-antelecom-dot-net>

Jim,

I beg to differ. If one resistor fails (i.e. flashes over) the additional
stress on the rest will start a chain reaction ending with a high energy
discharge (but this is getting off topic).

My 2-cents,
Brian B.

-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 6:52 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: high voltage measurement w/ divider


Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>

No shrapnel involved.. Even if one resistor fails, the rest will limit the
current, until they fail so you don't get the big peak currents needed for
explosions.. Big snap, smoke, flames, but probably not explosions.

That's not to say that one shouldn't be careful with large amounts of stored
energy available.... There are plenty of other places for untoward rapid
energy release..


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 5:11 PM
Subject: RE: high voltage measurement w/ divider


  > Original poster: "brianb by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<brianb-at-antelecom-dot-net>
  >
  > Guys,
  >
  > Be careful. A failure of one resistor here will most likely cascade down
the
  > string turning all the resistors and associated wiring into an exploding
  > wire experiment with shrapnel flying everywhere. Carefully think this
  > through and provide plenty of safety margin before proceeding...
  >
  > If you want to see what an unexpected failure scenario can do check out
  >
http://www.briananddebbie-dot-com/images/Backyard%20Science/Quarter%20Shrinker/A
  > ccident/accident.htm
  >
  > Regards,
  > Brian B.
  >
  >
  >