Re: Ground current to terminal

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz" <acmdq@xxxxxxxxxx>

Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: d a <btoc3000@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Hi Antonio,
> I am a bit confused now. The RF current goes into the RF ground and 
> get displaced upwards into the terminal (topload).
> When we see that there are cornoa discharge at the terminal 
> (topload), is it due to the fact that the terminal has stored enough 
> charges to cause breakdown into the air? Or is it due to the 
> displacement current from the RF ground that goes back to the 
> terminal via the air that causes the cornoa?

The terminal has stored enough charge to produce en electric field
around it that is intense enough to extract electrons (cause breakdown)
in the air around it.
"Displacement current" is an imaginary thing, not a real current.
There are no charges moving, just a varying electric field as charges
accumulate at the two "plates" of the capacitor formed between the
coil/topload and the ground. It is treated as a current too because
it produces effects similar to what a current causes, as a magnetic
field around it (or where it would be if it were really a current).

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz