Hi Professor, and welcome back from your trip.
You are absolutely correct, in that 50% of the energy will be lost in such a direct cap-to-cap transfer. The "lost" energy is dissipated in the wiring between the two capacitors, and it matters not how low that resistance be, it will always amount to 50% loss.
When we insert an inductor in between the two capacitors, things begin to change and we are able to transfer the energy with less loss. The efficiency of this method depends on the inductor. The higher the inductance and the lower its DC resistance, the better. In other words, we want to use an inductor with as high a Q-factor (L/R ratio) as possible.
In my opinion, using two caps in this case as you have suggested as a means to determine circuit efficiency, may be more complicated and less accurate.
I'll let others weigh in on the merit of this approach however.
You may be interested in reading the attached document I put together some time ago, on this very subject.
.99
Thank you -- I have looked through your document -- very informative, especially (to me) the part that begins thus:
"In an attempt get obtain meaningful work output from the setup, the coil is replaced with a transformer. The goal is to shuttle the initial energy back and forth between C1 and C2 with as little loss as possible, and to tap the energy flowing through the series inductance in order to make it do some work for us."
I agree with your conclusion that using capacitors in an attempt to measure n = Eout/Ein is complicated and difficult overall, and probably not a good approach. In the simple experiment I did, charge was conserved as expected -- but energy was NOT conserved in the circuit -- it must have been lost due to sparking or resistance (or other factors -- energy did not evaporate).
However, there is a way using caps that may work: we use a Cap with VERY large C for the input and such a cap on the "output leg" of the circuit also, then running the circuit for a relatively short time so that the voltage drop in the input cap is small.
I'm not certain how to wire this into the circuit, frankly, because of difficulties imposed by the necessity of having a complete circuit -- and charge MUST be conserved!
Now, in your use of two DMM's, .99, to measure Pin and Pout, I also have a problem -- because the "high-resistance" voltmeters affect the circuit, as seen in subtle changes in the brightness of the LED [which I observe sometimes] when a DMM is connected at certain places in the circuit. How to get around that problem?
General conclusion to this point: accurately measuring Pin and Pout is not trivial, not at all. I suspect that many in the "free energy" field are making mistakes in their measurements, mistakes I would like to learn to avoid -- to get at reliable measurements (my goal at this time).
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Topic: Reliable Measurements and Simulations: Power In and Out and Efficiency n (Read 51367 times)
