Original poster: Vardan <vardan01@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Hi,
At 11:50 PM 6/7/2006, you wrote:
Silly subject line but worth it, slightly off topic, but I think
everyone here is gonna want to see this.
http://www.physorg.com/news68812957.html
I tired it but I think the capacitor value IS 0.0005 Farads after all.
Here is the setup I had:
http://drsstc.com/~sisg/files/plasma-ball/SetUp-01.JPG
http://drsstc.com/~sisg/files/plasma-ball/SetUp-02.JPG
At 4500V with 525nF I could push 250 amps:
http://drsstc.com/~sisg/files/plasma-ball/Current.gif
But I just did not seem to have enough energy at all. I used salt
water in the same concentration as sea water (aquarium salt).
It all did "look right" though. I think the tube needs to be 1/8 to
1/2 inch below the water surface. With it vary shallow I could get
a "spark" but it was far from a plasma ball. With a 500uF capacitor
at 5000V There would be 1000X more power at 6250 Joules which seems
like just what it needs. I think the water absorbs a lot of the
energy so the "explosion" is not as dramatic as one would expect.
I don't have a big capacitor so I am stuck at this point. Maybe
someone with a can crusher would have the capacitance to go further
though. I'll ping the Denver Mad Scientists to see if anyone there
has a big cap...
The SISG seem to love it and works perfectly and it could easily
take the bigger caps power :-)))
Cheers,
Terry