Re: new to this

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: jdwarshui@xxxxxxxxx 


Hi Tyler, from Jared

 Welcome to the confusing and controversial world of coiling.

  There is a very nice paper written by a young E.E. It is reasonably
comprehensive and very well written. It includes all of the equations
and theory that a beginner would need for understanding  basic quarter
wave theory and construction.
Oh yes, you don't need to make your own tank capacitor (as the young
E.E. did in his paper)  In the last year or two, reasonably cheap mass
produced high voltage capacitors appeared on the market. They say
these capacitors work well and are very reliable.

You can Google search:  How a Tesla Coil Works. Or use the url.
http://home.earthlink.net/~electronxlc/howworks.html

Now about a topic dear to my heart, namely wire length.

The old argument that a grounded long wire and a grounded solenoid
with the same length of wire will have different natural resonant
frequencies has no bearing on arguments of wire length resonance. When
we run a straight wire it will have a natural L and C hence it
resonates at this frequency.  We can take the same wire and wrap it to
form an inductor it will then have a different natural L and C and
will resonate at a different frequency. (All true so far).

But who cares about the natural L and C of a straight wire or
inductor, they have nothing to do with resonant coils where one
intentionally adds top end capacitance to the natural capacitance to
adjust the resonant frequency of the system.

There is nothing stopping someone from adding capacitance to one of
the above mentioned systems until both the straight wire and the
inductor have the same resonant frequency. People automatically assume
that L.C  somehow dictates wave velocity. L.C dictates the frequency
of energy exchange, it has no effect on wave velocity.
(You would not expect the rate which you empty a bucket to affect the
velocity of the contents hitting the floor would you?.)


The Rub!:

You can build non wire length quarter wave coils and they work just
fine. You can build wire length coils and they also work just fine
(and typically at a lower frequency) Subsequently it has been assumed
that since both systems function that wire length has no particular
meaning.

However wire length still has meaning when you intend to form multiple
nodes on an inductor. If you take a few kilometers of wire and wrap it
around a large Styrofoam donut, connecting the ends so as to form a
continuous loop. Then place the correct  top end capacitance at the
predicted voltage nodes matching L.C. to the wire length. You will
find nice crisp node formations at  completely predictable locations
around the coil. Demonstrating (once again) that E.M waves do in fact
have spatial components as predicted by  J.C. Maxwell.  (You can find
this experiment on the Tesla Web Ring.)