Re: Gap Question

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

Original poster: Bart Anderson <classi6-at-classictesla-dot-com> 

Hi Luke, All,

This has been a good discussion!

Tesla list wrote:

>Original poster: "Luke" <Bluu-at-cox-dot-net>
>Sorry, when I wrote gap in this post I should have said arc.
>So when the term negative resistance is used what is meant is that the
>resistance value is changing in a negative direction (getting less)?
>Is that a correct statement?

That's how I'm coming to visualize from what the others have posted here.

Here is what I'm seeing: The voltage is very high and when an arc path is 
forced. The large potential pushes a large current across the path and 
takes the path of least resistance. In the case of a high current arc, the 
path of least resistance isn't a single initial arc path. It takes less 
energy to force the surrounding air around the initial arc path to become 
conductive than it is to wait for the current to cross this small pathway. 
Thus, the resistive portion around the initial arc path is forced into 
conduction. The area of conduction increases and the resistive region 
decreases. There is a maximum at which the VI product can force the 
surrounding resistive gas into conduction. Once this maximum is reached, 
because the voltage is decreasing, the resistive portion begins increasing 
as the area of conduction decreases.

I have a question for the list.

I can't visualize the current remaining constant and is what I thought I 
read in one of the posts (maybe that was just for conceptualizing the 
process?). As the conductive area changes throughout the process, the 
current should also change concentrically with the resistance as the 
voltage drops. If the current is constant, I don't understand how. A larger 
number of pathways should increase the current value at any point in time.

Thanks,
Bart