Visible current path in arc

60Hz 8kV 200mA Electric Arc, Recorded at 5000fps

[@cofa4011]

Impressive images ! Thanks for sharing :)

[@NickMoore]

Thanks, glad you liked it.

[@Yoggoth]

So when it is playing on KZbin at 30 FPS, 1s of real time is 166⅔s of video. Then one electric cycle happens every 166⅔ / 60 ≈ 2.8s of video.

[@dcallan812]

nice 2x👍

[@NickMoore]

TY!

[@trenthighvoltage]

i never knew you could see the current moving like that, i only shot hv arcs at 960fps and i thought that was enough lol i wish someone could shoot high frequency arcs in super slow mo

[@NickMoore]

You can even see the polarity change as the asymmetry in the arc swaps sides in every pulse. To catch KHz arcs though I think you would needs at least 100kfps, a little out of my budget.

[@trenthighvoltage]

@@NickMoore the slow mo guys did it with electroboom, but only with a tesla coil and a marx generator, not even the flyback arcs but i mean the flyback only outputted DC arcs so it wouldnt be noticeable anyways i think

[@trenthighvoltage]

@@NickMoore can you try again but with a mot stack? like at least 4 or so mots in parallel-series for about 5kV with resonance caps, for really aggressive arcs? i'd love to see how it looks in slow mo, and also at a little more fps?

[@trenthighvoltage]

@@NickMoore also i noticed with my 960fps slow mo clips of arcs, with salt it makes it more obvious for the flame to move back and forth from the force of the current path

[@NickMoore]

@@trenthighvoltage This was a 4 mot series stack with caps. At 5000fps the arcs aren't bright anymore >_

[@deepwinter77]

Wow, thats amazing you can actually see the AC current. Hiw fast is the camera

[@joostvanwijk3842]

Beautiful video Nick, is this AC or pulsating DC?

[@NickMoore]

AC from a regular mains transformer.

[@Yoggoth]

Hi, Nick! There is an opinion that led lamps normally has inconspicuous flickering and it is harmful. Probably is caused by electric current frequency which is typically 50 or 60Hz. Could you shoot comparison between incandescent lamp and led? Or probably you have already tested this?

[@NickMoore]

I did a video years ago about solving the flickering of LEDs for high speed video work! kzbin.info/www/bejne/eJW5oH1thc91i6M

[@Floofie_boi]

Okay now that's dope

[@Gyppor]

Wow, that's incredible!

[@NickMoore]

I've been sitting on that video for years, figured it's better off where other people can see it, not just me.

[@55Ramius]

Cool. Isn't your Chronus able to do about 36 to 38000 fps? I know it would be a slim video and in need of a lot of light. Maybe half that at 16,000 fps? I have wanted one of those cameras since they came out but I did not have the money and then they made HD with even more speed and double the price. About $6000 last time I looked.

[@NickMoore]

It will go upto 30k but it needs loads of light, so much that even arcs look dim!

[@princeoftheblues]

There is some useful fluid dynamics information there. Very interesting how the arc follows a jagged path in the already ionized air until a substantially shorter one is found.

[@AugustusTitus]

Freakin Sweet!

[@elizabethmussoi6210]

😮

[@zinckensteel]

Amazing! Not unlike the oldest form of oscilloscope tube, which had to be viewed via a rotating set of mirrors, as it was a simple glow tube with long discharge electrodes colinear to one another. The length of the cathode glow was proportional to both the amplitude and polarity.

[@NickMoore]

That's cool, ill have to look into it.

[@zinckensteel]

@@NickMoore Here is an excellent demo: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j5bMqqSofNmUY5Y

[@NickMoore]

@@zinckensteel Thats pretty slick!

[@brainfornothing]

Hey, Nick ! I hope you are doing very well ! :D Very interesting, we can see very clearly the polarity. What is the arc/rods distance, to know the speed of the current trace over the medium ? Thank you for sharing !

[@NickMoore]

The space between the rods at the top is only about 15cm. I'm not sure exactly what the propagating light is, the current is instantaneous as far as the camera is concerned so there must be some electrochemical effect in the arc. Something with the copper vapor or sodium (I added salt to get brighter yellow arcs).

[@brainfornothing]

​@@NickMoore Using 15 cm as reference looks like the arc is exciting the medium at about 150 m/s, half of the speed of sound, so, no shock waves by going faster. We don't know if the way of the "current" we see is from anode to cathode or the opposite, maybe wathever ions are in the medium are excited from positive to negative. Very interesting. Did you see the "ARCS! Frame by Frame" video from "Electroboom" and the "The Slow Mo Guys"? The video "Blowing up Capacitors at 187,000FPS" from those "Slow Mo Guys" is also interesting. Cheers !