Re: Cap Voltage

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <Mddeming-at-aol-dot-com>


Original poster: "Tim by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" < 
warpath-at-wtp-dot-net> 

>When the power transformer charges the capacitor, it (the transformer) 
>charges using AC. When the capacitor is fully charged and then 
>discharges, is it discharging as DC? Thanks, Tim 

Hi Tim, 

You could look at the initial discharge as a DC pulse for the first 
1/200,000th of a second or so. However, it is the capacitor and the coil 
working together that makes the oscillation as the cap discharges in one 
direction into the coil and is then recharged by the coil in the opposite 
direction, etc., at High Frequency, until the gap stops conducting. It is the 
frequency of this alternation (AC) that the secondary resonates with, 
producing the desired results. Once the gap stops conducting, the transformer 
recharges the capacitor with the opposite polarity until another discharge 
through the gap initiates another burst of damped RF oscillations.  Since a 
DC pulse can be shown mathematically to be the sum of an infinite number of 
sinusoidal harmonics of appropriate magnitude,( I think it's even harmonics 
make a square pulse and odd harmonics make a sawtooth or the other way 
around), whether the initial pulses are "DC pulses of alternating polarity" 
or "spiky AC" can be viewed IMHO as a philosophical (metaphysical) question.