On Jun 26, 2007, at 2:08 PM, Michel Jullian wrote:
My (possibly wrong) hypothesis is that the field is so low that the
ions only emanate from the highest field point of the tip, so they
just follow the particular field line which starts from there and
ends at the nearest point of the plate, and that there is so much
space between successive ions that they don't repel much laterally.
We don't really know the value of the current, so for what we know
there might be enough distance between one ion and the next for
space charge effects to be negligible compared to electrode charge
effects.
The derivation of the classical ~60° fanning out (Warburg law)
space charge limited current distribution in point to plane corona
is based on a continuous space charge model. This model obviously
breaks down somewhere between an ion saturated gap (space charge in
the way -> fanning out) and one ion at a time in the gap (no space
charge -> shortest route), so a significant narrowing of the ion
path distribution when current tends to zero may not be totally
nonsensical.
If we assume 10^9 amp, that's 6.24x10^9 electrons per second. If we
assume a 10 cm path length and 100 kph ion speed we have a transit
time of (10 cm)/(100 kph) = 0.0036 sec., thus (6.24x10^9 q/s)(0.0036
s) = 2.25x10^7 electrons in the path. That gives a separation of (10
cm)/(2.25x10^7 q) = 4.44x10^-9 m between charges. That means a force
of (8.98755x10^9 m/F) (q^2)/(4.44x10^-9 m)^2 = 1.17x10^-11 N =
1.19x10^-12 kgf. That's (1.19x10^12 kgf)/(Me) = 1.28x10^19 m/s2
acceleration, or 1.3x10^18 g's.
Those electrons would be out of line pretty fast at 10^18 g's
acceleration, if I calculate correctly.
I last wrote:
It may be that
the needles are making a significant focused neutral wind, and the
momentum of that wind carries the ions in a fairly narrow beam for a
while.
I have to be wrong about that with regard to at least some of Bill's
experiments. The threads just don't blow around much, but they seem
to follow field lines in some cases, or maybe just gravitation made
parabolas?. The momentum of a neutral wind carrying the current just
can't be consistent with the following:
"When I used a soda straw and blew upon a thread with all my might,
the dot in the mist only moved a little. The 5mm dot was changed to a
10mm x 30mm blotch. INCREDIBLY BIZARRE! The air blast either causes
the thread to spread out into a narrow fan, or it causes it to
vibrate at high speed so that the thread tip traces out an oblong
blotch in the mist. These threads are robust! Not at all like smoke,
they are more like carbon-fiber spiderwebs under high linear
tension... I've seen two threads with 5mm spacing between them, yet
they were 15cm long. If they were highly charged, they would repel
apart. If they are ions, there must be both polarities of ions
involved, so that the charge of the thread is very weak in relation
to the charge on the metal tray... I've seen pairs of threads come
from a fingernail top, extend down about 10cm and apparantly follow
the field lines, all the while maintaining a distance from each other
of about 1cm! They don't seem to repel each other much. "
The above quote from:
http://amasci.com/weird/unusual/airexp.html
Regards,
Horace Heffner
