Re: [TCML] Spark gap comparisons

[bartb <bartb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

FutureT@xxxxxxx wrote:
> Hi Bart,
>  
> I see what you're saying about regulating the air flow and  temperature.
> I sometimes used variable air supplies on my static gaps, with  various
> baffles, etc, to guide the air, but they still never equaled the  performance 
> of the rotary and the triggered gap on my TT- 42 coil.
>   
I've done the same with baffles, but it didn't help.
>  
> You said that the wide (5/8") gap in my triggered gap would  not
> result in higher gap losses compared to the shorter gaps in the  rotary.
>   
I said I don't understand how it could. Why would a "longer arc" have a 
higher resistance unless it is viewed as a piece of wire? This is the 
first step. If we look at the longer arc as a wire, the longer the wire, 
the higher it's resistance. I understand that hands down. But an arc is 
not a piece of wire. The arc is a variable where the resistance goes to 
near zero from it's initial infinite state (of which is where we attain 
the negative resistance appearance, not real, but appears to be) as a 
function of the change in current. In a piece of wire, it is a steady 
state resistance and very easy to account for.

An arcs resistance is quite different and variable to the current 
without a definitive value. This arc resistance can match whatever is 
thrown at it (from an 1/8" to 1" without a measurable difference [well, 
unless some seriously acquisition is used]).

I think we view an arcs length as a length of wire and this is the 
problem. An arc is not a length of wire. In the end, we can of course 
average the resistance accounted "as" a length of wire. The gaps you ran 
should have differed quite a bit if arc resistances were similar to a 
length of wire. If the resistance was "not" definitive (and I don't 
believe they are), then it is very possible the arc resistance is the 
same or very near so for a long length and a short length (and time 
defines their realized energy). This is an area that we just haven't 
really explored in detail yet. Your experiments I think are the closest 
that anyone has attempted, and those experiments state the arc 
resistance is something to be further experimented with.

I "cringe" at what I've read at times mainly due to realizing the 
inputs. I don't know any of this for certain. I am simply trying to 
figure out what is real and what is not. The spark gap is one of the 
most incredible and worthy analysis of any mechanical system I know of. 
It rivals even resonant coil physics, and oddly, so closely related.

Take care,
Bart

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