RE: Side-wise Vectors?????

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

Original poster: Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-twfpowerelectronics-dot-com>

Hi,

I tried a little test today.

I went to the local magnet deli and got a large 2.5 inch dia 1/2 inch thick 
round magnet with a 3/4 inch center hole:

http://www.wondermagnets-dot-com/cgi-bin/edatcat/WMSstore.pl?user_action=detail&catalogno=0034

It is the NdFeB type and rated at 1.21T

http://hot-streamer-dot-com/temp/PB180013.JPG

This magnet sets happily on my tube coil:

http://hot-streamer-dot-com/temp/PB180010.JPG

So how does it affect the corkscrewing?

Without:
http://hot-streamer-dot-com/temp/PB180007.JPG

With:
http://hot-streamer-dot-com/temp/PB180003.JPG

It is hard to tell from the pictures, but as far as I can see first hand, 
it makes no difference at all...  Flipping the magnet to the other side did 
not affect anything.

Maybe this will mean something to somebody...

Cheers,

         Terry


At 04:40 AM 11/18/2004, Steve Conner wrote:
> >So, maybe, it's the coil's discharge orientation to the earth's magnetic
> >field that determines the direction of the cork-screwing-like path?
>
>No, I think it's more likely the magnetic field of the secondary (and/or
>primary) coil. This is orders of magnitude greater than the earth's field, I
>(and others) have seen it deflect the beam on an oscilloscope near the coil
>through about 1/4". This was a good quality scope with an aluminium case and
>mu-metal shield on the tube.
>
>This is an interesting conundrum though. In a SSTC, the primary and
>secondary currents are theoretically in phase with each other, and are zero
>at the instant when the topload voltage is maximum. As far as we know, the
>discharge only grows for a short time around the topload voltage maximum, so
>it should see practically no field.
>
>So maybe streamer growth occurs at different times than we thought, or maybe
>the magnetic field driving the corkscrew effect comes from the primary.
>Under heavy loading, the primary current in an untuned primary SSTC starts
>to lag the secondary current, and so the primary field could be non-zero
>during the streamer growth time.
>
>If my hypothesis was right, then in a tuned primary coil such as a VTTC or
>CW-DRSSTC, you should be able to make the corkscrew go in either direction,
>or disappear altogether, by adjusting the primary tuning (which can make the
>primary current lead or lag the secondary)
>
>And, a SSTC magnifier should not corkscrew no matter how hard you try, since
>the primary coil is physically far away from the discharge.
>
>Another support for the hypothesis that the field comes from the primary, is
>the observation that sparks from a SGTC or OLTC do not corkscrew. The
>primary current in these classic disruptive coils has more or less died away
>by the time the streamers start to grow.
>
>Has anyone tried any of these experiments?
>
>Steve C.