Re: Magnetizing current in SSTCs, my previous posting

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

Original poster: "Peter Lawrence by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Peter.Lawrence-at-Sun.COM>

Ken,
     for the inertia of air to be of significance the density of plasma would
have to have some measurable effect on the spark. The electric field is
going to disassociate electrons from air molecules in femto-seconds, after
which you have a high density plasma (it has not had time to "expand")
which has some possibly measurable resistance/capacitance/inductance per
meter. Then after the plasma has had a chance to expand to its final
density it might have some different resistance/capacitance/inductance per
meter.

To put some sense into this "theory" you'll have to see if you can find
some published data on plasma resistance/capacitance/inductance as a function
of temperature and density. Then you will have to come up with an explanation
of why this affects spark growth and or length.

-Pete Lawrence.

 >Original poster: "K. C. Herrick by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<kchdlh-at-juno-dot-com>
 >
 >Steve & all-
 >
 >
 >So it takes some 60 us in the resonant case and only 18 us in the
 >non-resonant case for the same peak output voltage to be reached.  If my
 >conjecture is correct, as to the reason why s.s. sparks tend to be
 >shorter than conventional sparks, this may be what's significant.  The
 >conjecture is, as I've mentioned before, that the inertia of the air
 >surrounding the incipient spark will keep it "bottled up", so to speak,
 >for some few microseconds.  If, during those few microseconds, the
 >electrode voltage significantly rises, then the spark will become longer
 >than otherwise.
 >