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At 14:17 15/01/01 -0800, Leigh Palmer wrote:
> --) The ignition-spark system for a car has an important>coil primary) was interrupted.
capacitor in it.
Oh? It had one in the old days which was a spark suppressor, used
solely to extend the life of the breaker points by preventing a
high current spark when the current through an inductor (the spark
Was that its sole function, or did it also increase the rate at which the
current dropped to zero, thereby boosting the ignition voltage? I have a
model ignition coil in the lab, with a removable "condenser". Removing it
makes the induced spark across the high voltage coil more or less disappear.
> That capacitor was usually called a
"condenser", by the way. In a modern* electronic ignition system>their engines.
the breaker points operate at low voltage and the switching is
done by a solid state device. The lifetime of the points exceeds
that of most automobiles, and a condenser is not needed.
Leigh
* Few if any of our students are old enough to remember any other
kind of ignition system, and a fraction now approaching 0% work on
Well, it's not so surprising. Under the bonnet of my car it looks more like
inside a TV set than a car!