On Thu, 06 May 2004 00:25:11 -0700, Bob Cain
wrote:

So Bob's concern with fatter sparks is with getting a longer
*time* of arc? Rather than amplitude?

No, the discharge is still very quick even if long. What
the length gives is LF energy. A spark is not an impulse
exactly and the longer it is the closer it gets to one. A
short spark is a high passed impulse.

So, for better low frequency energy output, the spark needs
to last longer in time. The spark itself will still provide
the sharp leading and trailing edges. OK so far?

The spark is a heating phenomenon where a local region of
air expands due to heat and there is a relationship between
the amount of energy dissipated and the spectral content.

And the spectral content is determined by how long (in time)
that the arc occurs? And acoustic amplitude is related in some
way to the physical size of the gap?

Thanks, as always,

Chris Hornbeck