RE: Gap Question

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

Original poster: "Luke" <Bluu-at-cox-dot-net> 

Bart:
Thanx for putting some of that into words.  You helped me link a couple
thoughts from the posts that I had not put together before.

I was under the impression that the current increased and the voltage
decreased from the moment of breakdown until the process for lack of a
better word stabilized.  When the process stabilized the current and
voltage values of the gap would stay constant.  But all this was under
the assumption that the gap was fed with a power source that would did
not decrease in energy but gave a steady flow of energy.

What I was getting out of this is that the stabilized portion of the
process never happens in a TC circuit, because the power source feeding
the spark gap is a capacitor and is discharging.  So the energy supplied
to the gap is decreasing.  After the cap is discharged, if the gap is
still conducting the process reverses and is still changing as the LC
circuit oscillates.

Could be way off but hope someone can tell me if I have the picture
right?

Thanx


Luke Galyan
Bluu-at-cox-dot-net
http://members.cox-dot-net/bluu

-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2004 8:25 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Gap Question

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