Re: Potential difference vs. spark length vs. break rate

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

Original poster: "Stephen Conner by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <steve-at-scopeboy-dot-com>

At 12:31 22/05/03 -0600, you wrote:
>Original poster: "Dr. Resonance by way of Terry Fritz 
><teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <resonance-at-jvlnet-dot-com>
>
>
>What is missing from the Tesla coil picture is an accurate analysis of the 
>spark length based on break rate.  I hope to be able to do some of this 
>research later this summer and present a graph indicating break rate vs. 
>power vs. length.  I intend to use one of our standard model M-150 units 
>to take the measurements.  This system operates at 7.5 kVA and produces 8 
>ft. long sparks.

Hi Dr., I have been doing some stuff like this with my OLTC (which can run 
at anything between 2 and 1200bps and is very repeatable due to the 
solid-state spark gap)

I haven't got round to taking a full set of quantitative measurements yet, 
but basically I found that large bangs at a slow rep rate do a lot more 
than small bangs at a fast rep rate even though the power is the same. For 
instance, at 300bps and 100% bang energy I get about 7", at 1200bps and 25% 
bang energy (even though the power is the same) I am lucky to get 2".

Someone needs to write a new spark length formula that takes the BPS into 
account too, but I think we need more data points from more coils before 
that can be achieved. I'm thinking something like 
Length=A*log(BPS+B)*sqrt(energy)

Steve C.