Original poster: "Kurt Schraner" <k.schraner@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Ed,
I'm fairly shure, the dominant mechanism is electrostatic
attraction. Why? - When we first became aware of the wire-movement,
I first thought of an effect of current and magnetic forces, as you
describe. But then we asked "which current?", because we verified,
the JL-wires were moving _without_ any spark (If you watch again the
first movie-clip, you may notice, the wires are moving without any
spark, in the beginning). So, I changed mind, and thought it would
be a matter of the fairly strong E-field between the wires.
Calculating the capacitance of the JL revealed about 20pF. Guessing
the force between the wires, under 50kV, came out to about 0.41
Newton (0.093 lbf). This value seemed plausible to me, beeing enough
for starting the movement.
The case may be different, if there are sparks moving up the JL:
apart from electric- and magnetic field forces, the thermal
disturbances in the air also take part in the whole process...? -
But this is a different case vs. the "JL-oscillator".
Kurt
Tesla list wrote:
Original poster: Ed Phillips <evp@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Have you considered another mechanism for the ends of the ladder
moving apart as the arc moves up? Should be magnetic forces as well,
similar to the ones on the rails in the rail gun.
Ed