Re: Racing sparks

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

Original poster: "Gerry Reynolds" <gerryreynolds-at-earthlink-dot-net> 


I'm not sure who authored this reply, Terry or Malcolm?

Anyway, having waves in the TC secondary suggest to me that there is a
transmission line effect going on even though the distributed LC of the
secondary is magnetically coupled.  Would this be the case?  Also, would the
freak wave be another eigenfunction of the solution of the wave equation.

Gerry R

 > Original poster: Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-twfpowerelectronics-dot-com>
 >
 > Hi Bart,
 >            I've been waiting for a post like this to come along as
 > I've had an idea sparked by a TV program I watched on "freak waves"
 > in the ocean. Freak waves, to briefly explain, are waves which,
 > almost beyond the realms of possibility, surge up out of nowhere to
 > heights reaching 30 metres or so. They were long held to be a
 > mariner's tall tale by skeptics until some recent occurrences, one of
 > which was captured by camera on an oil rig in the North Sea and
 > others which seriously damaged and nearly sank different ships in
 > different parts of the major oceans. Please bear with me:
 >
 > On 4 Feb 2004, at 8:15, Tesla list wrote:
 >
 >  > Original poster: Bart Anderson <classi6-at-classictesla-dot-com>
 >  >
 >  > Hi Tom, Gerry,
 >  >
 >  > I don't completely understand each mechanism either, but I view the
 >  > racing sparks incident due a couple situations:
 >  >
 >  > 1) The voltage stress somewhere along the length of the coil is high
 >  > enough to breakout before the charge on the top terminal is capable.
 >  >
 >  > 2) There must be node(s) or areas along the length of the secondary
 >  > which are pronounced enough to cause the initial breakout a direct
 >  > path down the secondary. And with that, the further the arc creeps
 >  > down the secondary, the greater the difference in potential becomes.
 >  > This why I think most racing sparks will typically run the full the
 >  > length of the coil. However, I don't think this will occur each and
 >  > everytime. The arc may make an abrubt turn outward part way down.
 >  >
 >  > I believe "any situation" which might cause stresses in unwanted areas
 >  > of the coil are capable of producing the same affect. Tuning,
 >  > coupling, and topload affects on current distribution along the length
 >  > of the coil are three areas of adjustment to reduce these stresses in
 >  > both 1 and 2 above.
 >  >
 >  > Someone else may have a better theory.
 >  > Take care,
 >  > Bart
 >
 > To continue; the theory used to model ocean waves (I personally think
 > of it as a predicting rather than modelling theory) was used as a
 > design guideline for hull design. Based on what I saw, it was not
 > much more than a Gaussian curve which predicted that a freak wave
 > such as I've described might occur once in 10,000 years. The fact
 > that it was recently discovered that they happen far more often led
 > to an in-depth investigation. It was found that the right combination
 > of ocean currents coupled with opposing waves and seabed topology
 > near the bottom of the African continent led to such waves occurring.
 > However, this did not explain what was later seen by satellite
 > imaging; that such waves occurred far more frequently than predicted
 > in mid-ocean.
 >
 >       A physicist-engineer who was familiar with quantum mechanics got
 > on the case and discovered that the profile of a freak wave matched
 > waves thought to be a theoretical curiosity which sprung from
 > Schroedinger's Wave Equation. The one tall wave basically "sucked"
 > the energy from waves either side it seemed. The program concluded
 > with the postulation that there co-exists two basic wave patterns in
 > the ocean - the ones normally seen and whose height vs frequency of
 > occurence is predicted by the classic bell-curve, and another whose
 > profile is predicted by the quantum-mechanical wave equation.
 >
 > How this *might* relate to Tesla Coils: Wave phenomena are present in
 > Tesla Coils, of that there is no doubt. They occupy physical space in
 > a medium which places a speed limit on the transmission of a
 > disturbance. It occurred to me that it might be possible that racing
 > sparks are in fact a form of freak wave whose occurrence is induced
 > by presenting the necessary conditions for it to occur. Should that
 > be the case, it should be possible to predictably produce designs
 > whose energy is sufficient to allow this to happen vs designs running
 > at the same energy levels which do not allow it to occur (physical
 > parameters for the most part being equal). There are both
 > similarities and differences between the ocean as a transmission
 > medium and a resonator as a transmission medium. Just for starters,
 > both are high Q. The TC resonator is much more bounded than the ocean
 > - a major difference. However, that is at its fundamental and closely
 > related wavelengths, not something considerably higher.
 >
 > Enough handwaving - I have to ask the math experts, what do you
 > think? Might there be something in this? I admit to being lazy in not
 > pursuing this myself.
 >
 > Malcolm
 >
 >