I am working on a marx generator-powered Lenz-law launcher. I want to develop the maximum change in flux density for a very short pulse of thousands of amps. Should I make the launcher coil a small or larger diameter?
That's an interesting idea. A larger area and hence diameter of the coil means higher inductance. For a very short pulse, a high inductance means lower peak pulse current (=magnetic field) for a given steady voltage (current though an ideal inductor rises steadily with time for a given applied voltage). You can also reduce the number of turns to lower inductance to create a higher current which might be more effective. But having said that, I'm wondering if you will end up with enough total energy to actually launch anything? The projectile ring will extract energy from the system and cause the high current to die down quickly (milliseconds or microseconds) so the time that the force is generated and applied to the projectile will be very short. So even if the force is strong it may be be applied long enough to be very effective. The other thing to be aware of is a Marx generator does generate x-rays from the arc. And apparently a large amount of x-rays if you pass the current though a thin copper wire that vaporizes before the arc forms in its place. I'm not so how strong the emissions are but if you increase the capacitor sizes to store more energy and make a higher current spark you will make more x-rays. Might be worth looking into to make sure your (repeated) x-ray exposure is with safe amounts. (I have no idea if I am raising a needless concern here!). So prove my "not enough energy" concerns wrong and make a Marx generator powered Lenz-law launcher. I'll be fascinated and look forward to seeing the video! Good luck!
@@ElectromagneticVideos Thanks so much. I really appreciate the x-ray warning; up until now, I've thought that such a brief arc passing through air (rather than vacuum) would be relatively safe, but now I'm going to look at how I can monitor the x-ray emissions in a cost-effective way. As to whether there's enough energy to actually launch anything, nothing venured, nothing gained! My first attempt will use 23mm ferrite core for inductor.
@@sciencegeekgrandpa8 I think its relatively safe - most of the energy would be dissipated in heat. But always worth being careful. You are dealing with voltages in the ranges that x-ray tubes use (100kv) and some of those electrons will come to a smashing stop giving off x-ray photons. "nothing venured, nothing gained" - how true and nothing more fun than experimenting! Just saw your in Canada - where? I'm near Ottawa.
Great channel! Electromagnetism demonstrated with experiments. Great to see in practice when you take off the top part of magnetic core, the relutance of the magnetic circuit increase and the B field decrease, right?
Yes!!!!! Glad you enjoy the experiments. It has been a wonderful excuse for me to do some experiments I had done years ago. And some for the first time!
What is it that induces the current to begin with? Is it resistance? If we have zero volts because of the lack of resistance in the setup, is there current there? Also, what makes the transformer move when you apply power?
The battery across the coil provides the initial current and can be quite large becuase of the low resistance of the coil. When the circuit is opened, the coil "wants" to keep current the same so it generates a high enough voltage to create a spark which uses up the energy stored in the coils magentic field causing the current to die down. The top of the core bounces becuase everything isnt quite flat and when the coil creates a field in the bottom part of the core and pull the top, it moves a bit.
why do your videos have such low volume? Almost 50% lower than the advertisement. The advertisement has a much higher sound volume! Your ear hurts when the commercial comes on! Is it that hard to compare and adjust the volume correctly?? Many people on youtube struggle a lot with this and I don't understand why??
I actually didn't know the volume level was quieter than the ads. Thanks for letting me know - I will turn up the volume in future videos - I can see how annoying that is! The problem with RU-vid sound is as far a I know, they don't really provide any mechanism to calibrate the sound levels or provide some indication after uploading like "your audio volume is 50% lower than most videos - shall we boost it?"
