Re: SSTC does 10 foot sparks

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

Original poster: "Malcolm Watts" <m.j.watts-at-massey.ac.nz> 

Hi Matt,

On 24 Jun 2004, at 18:49, Tesla list wrote:

 > Original poster: Mddeming-at-aol-dot-com
 >
 > In a message dated 6/24/04 11:07:43 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
 > tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:
 >
 > 40J (for example) can give a totally different sparklength under the
 > following situations:
 >
 > #1 - a single shot of 40J into cold air vs a shot of 40J into a hot,
 > well-established streamer path
 >
 > #2 - 40J under either situation coming from substantially different
 > secondary coils, i.e. the L/C ratios and hence output voltages for one
 > thing being totally different.
 >
 > Malcolm
 >
 > Hi Malcolm, All,
 >
 > Sounds like "A non-linear dynamical system critically dependent upon
 > initial conditions, i.e. chaos." If this is so, then there can be no
 > complete, closed, deterministic form for describing the operation of a
 > TC, and the debate starts to resemble the Mandelbrot set, i.e no
 > matter how close you look at it, there are still infinite convolutions
 > and there can be no  resolution. The debate must therefore be infinite
 > :-((
 >
 > Matt D.

That is probably the case, given that even with exacting coil
specifications, atmospheric conditions are still present and I don't
think anyone operates in a tightly controlled environment. In any
case, the length of air-terminated streamers is open to
interpretation i.e. how sensitive are your eyes in a totally dark
room? to pose a rhetorical question.

Malcolm