From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Apr 10 2003 - 23:04:53 MDT
--- scerir <scerir@libero.it> wrote:
> On a personal note related to this, when I was an undergraduate, we
> made this contraption for an engineering Expo that we call the Theta
> Pinch (there was another unofficial name for it but it is too vulgar
> to put on here :)). It consisted basically of a very large capacitor
> that we can get a very high current from when we discharge it,
> connected to a solenoid surrounding a hollow tube that can fit a
> typical aluminum drinks can. When you discharge the capacitor through
> the solenoid, the large, time-varying current flowing through it
> causes a big axial magnetic field in the solenoid. Since this field
> is also time varying, via Lenz's Law, it will induce a separate
> current in the metallic can. The combination of this current in the
> can and the magnetic field causes a Lorentz force large enough to
> crush the can inwards (radially) in one single shot! This also caused
> a loud "POP".
A buddy of mine in Seattle who had his own 12' tall Tesla coil
(featured in the Goodness video "Electricity" on MTV, and frequently at
Bumbershoot shows) used a similar setup to shrink coins. He'd make
complete collections of shrunken coins, framed, for collectors. We
amped this up to make gauss guns with copper wire warheads, useful for
blasting holes in concrete walls...
=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
- Gen. John Stark
"Pacifists are Objectively Pro-Fascist." - George Orwell
"Treason doth never Prosper. What is the Reason?
For if it Prosper, none Dare call it Treason..." - Ovid
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