Visible current path in arc

[@cofa4011]

Impressive images ! Thanks for sharing :)

[@NickMoore]

Thanks, glad you liked it.

[@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.

[@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.

[@Floofie_boi]

Okay now that's dope

[@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!

[@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.

[@AugustusTitus]

Freakin Sweet!

[@deepwinter77]

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

[@dcallan812]

nice 2x👍

[@NickMoore]

TY!

[@joostvanwijk3842]

Beautiful video Nick, is this AC or pulsating DC?

[@NickMoore]

AC from a regular mains transformer.

[@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 !

[@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!

[@elizabethmussoi6210]

😮

[@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