sparks in space

[bwanaaa]

do sparks occur in space?

if you turn on a tesla coil, what would happen?

no gas in space,therefore no visible arc(no ions to be excited by the electricity)

but would the electrons jump across the void? invisibly??

 

[CTho9305]

Yes, it would be invisible.

 

[bwanaaa]

but i remember that photons are emitted when electrons go from an 'excited' state in higher orbital to a stable state. When the electrons jump from the anode to the cathode, arent they changing their energy? wouldnt that energy be released as light at the cathode?

 

[uart]

I'd imagine that there would be radiation generated when the electrons struck cathode. Also you could get ions forming from the cathod material and that might sustain an arc.

 

[bwanaaa]

in fact, the cathode might end up looking like a light bulb. if you survived long enough to see it. i imagine the electron beam would be similar to the output of a betatron and cause cell damage. the velocity of the electrons would be an interestting thing to measure-

because the charge carrier density is so low (0?) the drift velocity of even a few electrons would be mighty fast

 

[uart]

Originally posted by: bwanaaa
in fact, the cathode might end up looking like a light bulb. if you survived long enough to see it. i imagine the electron beam would be similar to the output of a betatron and cause cell damage. the velocity of the electrons would be an interestting thing to measure-

because the charge carrier density is so low (0?) the drift velocity of even a few electrons would be mighty fast

Actually the potential cell damage that the radiation could cause is largely dependant on the energy per photon and hence the frequency. This in turn is primarily dependant on just two things

1. The voltage with which the electrons are accelerated (E=qV), and

2. How abruptly the electrons are stopped (or decelerated) by the cathode material. Cathode materials of high atomic number generally cause harder radiation than lighter cathode materials.

Actually this is pretty close to what is happening in your CRT monitor (if you have one). The acceleration voltages and the cathode materials are choosen such that virtually no X-Rays should be produced - well at least that's what the CRT manufacturers tell us.

Some very old color TV sets where implicated in dubious levels of XRay production but according to folk who know more about old TV's then myself this was caused by a vacuum tube HV rectifier rather than the CRT tube itself. (BTW, the tube HV rectifiers have long been replaced by solid state rectifiers.)

 

[Geniere]

Uart is correct but for one typo, I think. In his statement 2, he refers to the cathode as stopping or slowing the electron. I?m sure he meant to type ?anode?. This slowing process is called bremstahling from the German for breaking.

Going back to the Tesla coil, since the electrons are accelerated when moving from one pole to the other, they produce EM radiation (a shower of photons). Some of these photons will be at radio frequencies. Marconi used the Tesla concept to send radio messages from the US to Europe about 1 hundred years ago.

 

[uart]

Thank you for your correction Geniere. Indeed the electrons travel from the cathode to the anode (from - to +) and not visa-versa as I wrongly implied.

Not so much a typo, more a case of temporarily forgetting which (of cathode or anode) was the positive electrode.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: bwanaaa
but i remember that photons are emitted when electrons go from an 'excited' state in higher orbital to a stable state. When the electrons jump from the anode to the cathode, arent they changing their energy? wouldnt that energy be released as light at the cathode?

Simplistic: That's when they're orbiting a nucleus within an atom and drop to a lower orbital. (that explains it well enough without the details of quantum mechanics)

 

[Walleye]

in space there is an ether that all forms of energy transport accross.

noone knows what this ether is, or how to prove it's there. but logically, it has to be there.

i'd guess, because of such, energy discharges would be visible if they would normally.

 

[RossGr]

Originally posted by: Walleye
in space there is an ether that all forms of energy transport accross.

noone knows what this ether is, or how to prove it's there. but logically, it has to be there.

i'd guess, because of such, energy discharges would be visible if they would normally.

This is pretty funny stuf. So this ether is there but not detecable, unless you make a spark. In which case it is visible because of the ether. LOL... That makes it pretty easy to detect doesn't it?

 

[Walleye]

Originally posted by: RossGr

Originally posted by: Walleye
in space there is an ether that all forms of energy transport accross.

noone knows what this ether is, or how to prove it's there. but logically, it has to be there.

i'd guess, because of such, energy discharges would be visible if they would normally.

This is pretty funny stuf. So this ether is there but not detecable, unless you make a spark. In which case it is visible because of the ether. LOL... That makes it pretty easy to detect doesn't it?

hey, leave me alone.

i was only tired stupor theorizing.


the ether is a theory told to me by my father (an aeronautics engineer... worked on rockets)

energy needs a medium to transport accross. even if it is a vaccuum, there needs to be something there for it to transport accross. if there wasnt, we wouldnt be able to see the sun (and it couldnt heat us).

so thus, there has to be something in space. there's the proof for the existence of ether. now actually quantifying it is something else.

 

[RossGr]

You would do better to take a Physics course, your father fed you a line.

Guest that proves that rocket scientists don't know everything.

 

[Walleye]

Originally posted by: RossGr
You would do better to take a Physics course, your father fed you a line.

Guest that proves that rocket scientists don't know everything.

no, he didnt.

the only physics course i had so far, the book was only slightly more advanced than "see spot run".

 

[RossGr]

Originally posted by: Walleye

Originally posted by: RossGr
You would do better to take a Physics course, your father fed you a line.

Guest that proves that rocket scientists don't know everything.

no, he didnt.

the only physics course i had so far, the book was only slightly more advanced than "see spot run".

With that and what your dad told you, guess you are ready to start teaching.

 

[Walleye]

Originally posted by: RossGr

Originally posted by: Walleye

Originally posted by: RossGr
You would do better to take a Physics course, your father fed you a line.

Guest that proves that rocket scientists don't know everything.

no, he didnt.

the only physics course i had so far, the book was only slightly more advanced than "see spot run".

With that and what your dad told you, guess you are ready to start teaching.

i was theorizing, damnit!

Discussion Einstein's idea was that cosmic space can not be imagined without the existence of gravitational ether: "Recapitulating, we may say that according to the general theory of relativity space is endowed with physical qualities; in this sense, therefore, there exists an ether. According to the general theory of relativity space without ether is unthinkable; for in such space there not only would be no propagation of light, but also no possibility of existence for standards of space and time (measuring rods and clocks), nor therefore any space-time intervals in the physical sense. But this ether may not be thought of as endowed with the quality characteristic of ponderable media, as consisting of parts which may be tracked through time. The idea of motion may not be applied to it"

http://www.weeklyuniverse.com/skies/skies11.htm


google search on ether in space . i told you it was a theory, and i wasnt quite with the specifics of it. (hey, what do you expect from dinner conversation?)

 

[rjain]

Actually, the way that the GPS system had to be designed gives credence to the "ether" theory, except that the ether is no longer a static medium through which objects flow, but a dynamic, flowing medium shaped by the masses flowing through it.