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I like William Beaty's explanation electrical topics. In particular, his history[1] of the 3-prong mains plug I found very interesting. Also, I still want to s

by pdkl95 11y ago

I like William Beaty's explanation electrical topics. In particular, his history[1] of the 3-prong mains plug I found very interesting. Also, I still want to see an actual electro-electret[2]. [1] http://amasci.com/amateur/whygnd.html http://amasci.com/amateur/whygnd.html [2] http://amasci.com/elect/mcoils.html http://amasci.com/elect/mcoils.html

InclinedPlane 11y ago
I've been looking for that first link for ages, I forgot where I had read it.
tonyedgecombe 11y ago
I remember asking my physics teacher why AC circuits had a live and neutral connection, sadly I didn't get an answer anything like your first link.
justifier 11y ago
and this(o) was on the front page of reddit recently.. My textbook says electricity is faster than light? Herman, Stephen L. Delmar's Standard Textbook of Electricity, Sixth Edition. 2014 here's the part(i) At first glance this seems logical, but I'm pretty sure this is not how it works. Can someone explain? (o) https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/3sm2jj/my_textbook_says_electricity_is_faster_than_light/ https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/3sm2jj/my_textb... (i) http://i.imgur.com/cnNuLEk.jpg http://i.imgur.com/cnNuLEk.jpg
wbeaty 11y ago
Mcoils article was much longer, but I never made the GIF diagrams for the second half. Do this: make a small half-inch parallel-plate capacitor with a 10ft thick dielectric. Use the insulating dielectric as an "AC conductor." Break it in two to form an off-switch, and force the fractured ends back together to complete the circuit. I do have a short piece of PZT piezo ceramic rod from eBay. But I still haven't tried using it to complete an AC circuit, or even stuck it on top of a Tesla coil. At high freqs, high-K piezo-ceramic insulators are a good conductor: a long, long filament of capacitor-dielectric which, in theory, can be wound into an AC electromagnet coil ...made of insulator. (Or, when put on top of a Tesla coil, I expect sparks to shoot out of the insulating ceramic tip!) But not nearly as fun concept as electro-electret solenoids that should attract rice crispies and small bits of paper. I did build the chain-of-rings transformer, the waveguide for 60Hz. In a surplus shop I found a handful of big transformer cores; those tape-wound split-core type. I could pass copper rings through these (made some #10-gauge wire loops), using cable-ties to clamp the C-cores into closed rings. I drove one end of the chain with 1000 amps from a soldering gun tip. The other end was 30 turns of wire-wrap wire, and would light up a little 3v pilot light. I think there were six iron cores and five copper rings in the chain. Of course if you want the ultimate chain, you'd need alternating rings of piezo ceramic and ferrite. Figure out how much horsepower could be sent along the floppy chain before it started heating up too much! Handy note: if you need ~1000 amps AC for anything, just screw a short loop of #12-gauge solid wire into the end of your 300-watt soldering gun. Make a little loop coil, use it to demagnetize your screwdrivers. It's not 1000 turns of one ampere, it's one turn of 1000 amperes. Pass the conductor through a pair of tapewound C-cores and they slam together with 100s lbs force. (Measure it with a clamp-on ammeter, if your ammeter goes that high.) For my next trick, I will shoot a smoke-ring made out of Luminiferous Aether across the room. But first I'll need a big deep hat, from which I'll have to pull two new Maxwell's equations! :)

by pdkl95 11y ago

InclinedPlane 11y ago

I've been looking for that first link for ages, I forgot where I had read it.

tonyedgecombe 11y ago

I remember asking my physics teacher why AC circuits had a live and neutral connection, sadly I didn't get an answer anything like your first link.

justifier 11y ago

and this(o) was on the front page of reddit recently.. My textbook says electricity is faster than light? Herman, Stephen L. Delmar's Standard Textbook of Electricity, Sixth Edition. 2014 here's the part(i) At first glance this seems logical, but I'm pretty sure this is not how it works. Can someone explain? (o) https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/3sm2jj/my_textbook_says_electricity_is_faster_than_light/ https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/3sm2jj/my_textb... (i) http://i.imgur.com/cnNuLEk.jpg http://i.imgur.com/cnNuLEk.jpg

wbeaty 11y ago

Mcoils article was much longer, but I never made the GIF diagrams for the second half. Do this: make a small half-inch parallel-plate capacitor with a 10ft thick dielectric. Use the insulating dielectric as an "AC conductor." Break it in two to form an off-switch, and force the fractured ends back together to complete the circuit. I do have a short piece of PZT piezo ceramic rod from eBay. But I still haven't tried using it to complete an AC circuit, or even stuck it on top of a Tesla coil. At high freqs, high-K piezo-ceramic insulators are a good conductor: a long, long filament of capacitor-dielectric which, in theory, can be wound into an AC electromagnet coil ...made of insulator. (Or, when put on top of a Tesla coil, I expect sparks to shoot out of the insulating ceramic tip!) But not nearly as fun concept as electro-electret solenoids that should attract rice crispies and small bits of paper. I did build the chain-of-rings transformer, the waveguide for 60Hz. In a surplus shop I found a handful of big transformer cores; those tape-wound split-core type. I could pass copper rings through these (made some #10-gauge wire loops), using cable-ties to clamp the C-cores into closed rings. I drove one end of the chain with 1000 amps from a soldering gun tip. The other end was 30 turns of wire-wrap wire, and would light up a little 3v pilot light. I think there were six iron cores and five copper rings in the chain. Of course if you want the ultimate chain, you'd need alternating rings of piezo ceramic and ferrite. Figure out how much horsepower could be sent along the floppy chain before it started heating up too much! Handy note: if you need ~1000 amps AC for anything, just screw a short loop of #12-gauge solid wire into the end of your 300-watt soldering gun. Make a little loop coil, use it to demagnetize your screwdrivers. It's not 1000 turns of one ampere, it's one turn of 1000 amperes. Pass the conductor through a pair of tapewound C-cores and they slam together with 100s lbs force. (Measure it with a clamp-on ammeter, if your ammeter goes that high.) For my next trick, I will shoot a smoke-ring made out of Luminiferous Aether across the room. But first I'll need a big deep hat, from which I'll have to pull two new Maxwell's equations! :)