Re: Magnetizing current in SSTCs, my previous posting

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

Original poster: "K. C. Herrick by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <kchdlh-at-juno-dot-com>

Peter (& all)-

First let me gently correct you as to my "theory", which is not, of
course, a theory at all, in our context, but rather merely a conjecture
(as I said).  I remind all that, for scientists (or at-best
quasi-scientists like me), a "theory" is an >explanation<; it is much
more than a conjecture.  I'm reminded of the many evolutionists who have
been bedeviled by the "it's only a theory" objection to what is before
everybody's eyes.  We need to be careful with "theory"!

Lecture accomplished, I wouldn't argue about the femto-seconds but I
wonder about the ratio of electric energy that gets put into
disassociating the electrons vs. the energy that goes into heating up the
air.  Would not that ratio be quite large?  In other words, would not the
air have to become substantially heated up before the coil-system's
energy becomes substantially dissipated into the seen-and-heard spark?

If that were the case, then perhaps my argument (conjecture!) has merit.

Ken Herrick

On Fri, 16 May 2003 12:58:43 -0600 "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
writes:
 > 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.
 >  >
 >
 >
 >
 >