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Re: RF Spectrum
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To: tesla@grendel.objinc.com
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Subject: Re: RF Spectrum
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From: mrbarton@ix.netcom.com (Mark Barton)
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Date: Sat, 13 Jan 1996 00:50:35 -0800
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>Received: from ix11.ix.netcom.com (ix11.ix.netcom.com [199.182.120.11]) by uucp-1.csn.net (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id BAA28310 for <tesla@grendel.objinc.com>; Sat, 13 Jan 1996 01:51:13 -0700
You wrote:
>
> I just want to clear up an issue here. So any advice is helpfull.
>
> Now on the tesla coil, my very basic understanding is that the coil
>is really nothing more than an 'Antenna' wrapped around a pole. And as an
>Antenna it gives off an RF frequency based upon its capacitance.
>
Actually, that is not quite right. A Tesla coil is a 1/4 wave helical
resonator. It has a natural resonant frequency which is inversely
proportional to the total length of wire used, and is approximately equal to:
F = 0.25 * c / wire_length where c = speed of light
The coil will also react to odd harmonics of F: 3F, 5F, 7F... at rapidly
decreasing amplitudes. To get a real good gut understanding of how Tesla
coil secondaries work, read about organ pipes which are open at the top.
They are the acoustic analog.
Zap,
Mark