It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
You need $5 to build this demonstrator version:
Originally posted by timmhaines
reply to post by AthlonSavage
So can you make the Tesla antenna work 100% of the time? This is a problem I cannot overcome, and really want to power the house, and maybe a car.
Apparently Tesla thought he might be able to demonstrate something more efficient with Wardenclyffe, but he never did, and I'm doubtful that he or anyone else will ever do that. The math doesn't allow it as far as I can tell, and so far nobody has shown me any better math, or any demonstration, that proves otherwise.
Originally posted by buddhasystem
Originally posted by pheonix358
Originally posted by Arbitrageur
Or maybe you should read my post and the link to dimmers I provided, which I think covers the dimmer topic more accurately than your link. The modern dimmers are typically pulsed; rheostats were used in old dimmers however, and were inefficient.
Originally posted by AthlonSavage
I should of used example of a Rheostat which is a device with a dimmer control which varies electrical resistance to vary intensity of light source. I wil check Iron electrical circuits out later to confirm circuit layout (havent got time now).edit on 7-11-2012 by Arbitrageur because: clarification
Yes, I agree, to understand modern dimmers one needs to consider the fourth dimension. A dimmer works by applying the same power levels but the levels are restricted in the time domain.
As has been posted before, but ignored, This analogy utterly fails to describe how a transformer functions.
There is always a grave risk if your fundamental understanding is solely based on analogies. If you never rise above the simplistic and limited analogies you will never truly understand.
I tend to agree.
Moreover, when we look at history, we observe that quite a few analogies were tried to explain things, before the age of the scientific method. Like "phlogiston", five elements (or four, or six), astrology coupled with alchemy etc.
It just doesn't work well.
What beats me is this: the electricity is a fairly simple concept that a child has a fair chance of understanding. Why settle for water cisterns?
Originally posted by Pilgrum
reply to post by Druid42
At the risk of using one analogy to explain another, the best analogy for describing the action of a transformer would have to be the gearbox, an electrical gearbox that is. It transfers the power input to the output (minus some operating losses like hysteresis, iron and copper losses) but allows virtually unlimited range of conversion of the current/voltage balance in the process.
Analogies are good as an aid to introductory understanding of basic principles but not much more than that.
Originally posted by Druid42
reply to post by buddhasystem
to describe how a transformer functions.
Care to explain that one? I'm curious to see if you can.
Originally posted by Pilgrum
reply to post by Druid42
At the risk of using one analogy to explain another, the best analogy for describing the action of a transformer would have to be the gearbox, an electrical gearbox that is. It transfers the power input to the output (minus some operating losses like hysteresis, iron and copper losses) but allows virtually unlimited range of conversion of the current/voltage balance in the process.
Analogies are good as an aid to introductory understanding of basic principles but not much more than that.
Originally posted by Druid42
reply to post by buddhasystem
I find your usage of the word mechanism to be somewhat misleading. Isn't it more of a process?
No one here has described transformer operation yet, but rather clung to analogical remarks.
A varying current in the primary winding creates a varying magnetic flux in the transformer's core and thus a varying magnetic field through the secondary winding. This varying magnetic field induces a varying electromotive force (EMF), or "voltage", in the secondary winding.