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Re: [TCML] Spark gap comparisons



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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