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[TCML] RE: musing on lists ( Wireless Transmission Theory)



On Sat, 9 Feb 2008, Ed Phillips wrote:

> 	I know that but I'm one who can't resist the bait!  I grew up in a
> family of technical people and family gatherings often turned into
> fierce debates among the "men folk" while the women sat around and

Heh.  My history is one of having lots of late-night brainstorming
sessions; flights of physics-informed fancy where participants try to
out-do each other while still adding to the big clunky "idea" being built
by all.  It's more like creative jazz music than like competitive debate.
Or like designing some interesting devices for an SF short story.  Maybe
they'll even work if built.  (Usually not!)


> 	I won't argue the first point although I am curious about what
> additional insight is gained by treating a Tesla coil as a [somewhat]
> distributed circuit.

Corum stuff doesn't look very relevant to the standard coils built by
everyone.  But look at the concept behind it:  a waveguide that doesn't
need microwave frequencies!  It's an electronic component which needs no
complete circuit. And also a power cable made from just one conductor.
That's fascinating.  At least to me.

What if I go and buy 20ft of half-inch PVC water pipe and wind the whole
thing with magnet wire?  Or better, do the same trick with 1/2" diamter
rubber hose?  Fifty feet of it.  Now I have a flexible waveguide for
signals like 50KHz rather than 5GHz.  Perhaps wobbly "Tesla coils" a half
inch diameter and fifty feet long will not impress fellow coilers.  But,
would I be able to put an impedance-matched absorber on the far end, then
illuminate a bulb without using standing waves?  Or run a motor?  What if
I give the coil a 90deg kink, can I stop the waves and reflect them back?
(A kink in the "electricity hose.")  Or, can I connect three together to
form a "Y" junction and have the waves divide evenly?  Or build a SPDT
switch with no moving parts?  Are there any microwave devices which would
still work with such a waveguide?  A "tesla circulator?"  And can the
waveguide couple any 50KHz waves onto a single straight wire (onto a
G-line?)  A new kind of G-line launcher?  Or is the mismatch way too big?
And does any EM leak out of the tip of such a waveguide, as with helical
microwave antennas used for satellites?

Corum concepts tell me to morph a TC secondary into a weird shape, then
see what sorts of interesting topics might come up.  Don't just build a
big Tesla coil.  The more brain-stretching and impractical it is, the
better.

:)

I suspect that all of the above speculations are too far from "tesla coil
building," and most people here won't see much point to messing with such
impractical ideas.  But what is the above, if not "tesla coil building?"
It's TC building, but it's far closer to amateur science than it is to TC
engineering.


>  As for the bit about semiconductor physicists the
> author is apparently unfamiliar with the very extensive literature on
> the subject of semiconductor physics and techniques for computing and

I guess I wasn't clear enough.  Or are you trying to demonstrate that
science and engineering are the same thing?  I hope not.

I meant that while the material already appearing in textbooks is the
basis for engineering, yet it is no fit topic for a physics journal.
Ohm's law and Ebers-Moll have already been done.

Let me try again: in 1820, Ohm's law was "doing physics," but today
physics has gone a bit beyond it you must admit.  Ohm's law is now a
textbook concept, and is the basis for engineering.  In other words,
"Doing Physics" is one thing, and the results of physics are something
separate.  Doing Science by definition involves the ideas that don't
appear in any textbook or any journal anywhere.  All those topics which
are currently outside the understanding of humankind...  those are the
topics of the next round of physics journals.

But I gather that those are the sorts of topics that the majority of TCML
would rather not discuss?  Corum topic is on the edge.  Wireless power is
on the edge.  TC health effects are threadkilled (though there are several
recent research papers about biological effects of low-freq e-fields.  No
point to posting them, I saw that threadkill from miles away.)  All these
topics are distasteful to the engineering viewpoint.  They are off in the
unknown, out in the realm of uncertainty, filled with error associated
with trial. "Weird stuff?"  Very probably wrong?  Or just tesla coil
physics investigatory topics in search of the right forum.


(((((((((((((((((( ( (  (   (    (O)    )   )  ) ) )))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty                http://staff.washington.edu/wbeaty/
beaty chem washington edu       Research Engineer
billbamascicom                  UW Chem Dept,  Bagley Hall RM74
206-543-6195                    Box 351700, Seattle, WA 98195-1700
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