Resonance of Electricity, Skybuck's (crazy?) Theory.

I think I'd accept that answer from a grade schooler. :-) How old are you? :-)

Does work wonderfully at RF though.

Tim

-- Deep Fryer: A very philosophical monk. Website @

boost

pound

He's got Asperger's.

Thanks, Rich

So you consider it a correct answer ?

Bye, Skybuck.

It's sort of in the ballpark. A very large ballpark, mind you, but at least you drove to the appopriate field.

It's not really so much "wave action" that "pounds" on the electrical components but rather large currents and voltages that bring the device up to its quiescent state. The canonical example here is light bulbs -- when cold, filaments have a very small resistance relative to that desired when they're operating "steady state." So, you turn on the wall switch, a huge inrush of current goes through the filmanet which physically jerks it around and creates localized heating at any thin spots (more so than you have at steady state), thus making it much more likely that, if a light bulb is going to burn out, it'll do so when it's first turned on.

In things like power supplies the heating caused by the inrush current to filter capacitors may tend to age them a bit, as it does to, e.g., rectifier diodes as well (but usually this isn't as big of a deal, and diodes generally live much longer than big electrolytic capacitors do to begin with).

If you want to think about "waves" of electricity pounding components, similar to a water hammer in your plumbing, you need to get up to high enough frequencies that your system is a signifcant fraction of a wavelength. This certainly does happen -- there are plenty of radio transmitters out there where, if you forget to attach an antenna, the reflected RF from the open-ended coax creates a high-voltage that'll hammer your final output transistors to death. :-) Unlike a water hammer where you can hear each "hammering," though, even if it takes millions of cycles to kill the transistors, it still only takes an instant, so usually the radio just quits working... or perhaps if you're "lucky" you release a bunch of smoke or it starts on fire. :-)

---Joel

...

Not necessarily. Have you ever seen a TDR operate? It uses a step funcion, which becomes "DC" (I know, by mathematics, there's no such thing as "DC", but for the purposes of real life, it's close enough).

And that step function can and does "pound" on the electronics. And turning it on and off quickly could interact with resonances in the equipment, giving you the functional equivalent of standing waves.

Hope This Helps! Rich

Hi Rich,

OK, I guess I figure waves ought to resemble sine waves moreso than step functions, but you're right, step functions can hammer away on stuff too!

Step functions are made from sine waves.

Takes quite a few of them, though.

Hmm,

Some postings missing on my isp's server.

I asked Joel:

Do you consider the explanation to be correct, and here is his interesting post/answer, (which IS visible on google):

It's sort of in the ballpark. A very large ballpark, mind you, but at least you drove to the appopriate field.

It's not really so much "wave action" that "pounds" on the electrical components but rather large currents and voltages that bring the device up to its quiescent state. The canonical example here is light bulbs -- when cold, filaments have a very small resistance relative to that desired when they're operating "steady state." So, you turn on the wall switch, a huge inrush of current goes through the filmanet which physically jerks it around and creates localized heating at any thin spots (more so than you have at steady state), thus making it much more likely that, if a light bulb is going to burn out, it'll do so when it's first turned on.

In things like power supplies the heating caused by the inrush current to filter capacitors may tend to age them a bit, as it does to, e.g., rectifier diodes as well (but usually this isn't as big of a deal, and diodes generally live much longer than big electrolytic capacitors do to begin with).

If you want to think about "waves" of electricity pounding components, similar to a water hammer in your plumbing, you need to get up to high enough frequencies that your system is a signifcant fraction of a wavelength. This certainly does happen -- there are plenty of radio transmitters out there where, if you forget to attach an antenna, the reflected RF from the open-ended coax creates a high-voltage that'll hammer your final output transistors to death. :-) Unlike a water hammer where you can hear each "hammering," though, even if it takes millions of cycles to kill the transistors, it still only takes an instant, so usually the radio just quits working... or perhaps if you're "lucky" you release a bunch of smoke or it starts on fire. :-)

---Joel

Skybuck again:

I like especially the light bulb analogy, I have seen that happen to real light bulbs when I power them on... a flash happens and then they are dead.

However I can believe what I want to believe... and I always believed it had to do with static electricity... and who knows.. maybe static electricty does place a roll as well.

Here I shall suck a new theory out of my thumb:

The static electricty flowing from my body onto the light bulb together with the rush of power going into the light bulb creates a powerfull tsunami destroying the light bulb ! LOL.

Still I like my analogy of TSUNAMI OF POWER much better... even if static electricity does not play a roll...

Joel's explanation sounds plausible.

A TSUNAMI OF POWER/ELECTRICTY DESTROYS THE ELECTRONICS DURING POWER UP.

HOWEVER.

If this would truely be the cause, then why would the motherboard have died after many frequent resets in short time ?

Why ? I ask ? Why ?

Why not many days before ?

It doesn't really fit what I saw.

I power on the system once maybe twice a day... usually just once a day.

But only when I power on/off the system in quick succession does it have a chance to die.

Ofcourse it could be that I simply "quickened" the rate of death.

Or are there are mysterious forces at work.

JOEL does ADMIT that my RESONANCE THEORY does have MERIT =D HIHIHIHIHIHHIHIHIHHI LOL.

So I still think that the theory might explain it further:

Some "REST" energy is still present in the system... during quick on/off/on/off succession.

I have seen this "REST" energy before.

For example pulling the bateries from electronics equipment, maybe even a flash light... or what to think about digital watches ?

Pulling the bateries... and then turning on stuff... shortly gives operation...

I think I have seen this in TELEVISIONS as well...

It seems there is a small ammount of "rest" energy in the device !

So the theory goes:

This "rest" energy could increase or start resonanting... in quick on/off/on/off situation.

Leading to an even greater TSUNAMI OF POWER then usual ;)

(Complex s*it I know ! ;)) :)

(Also I do wonder why other kinds of lights fail less regularly but ok... ;) that's probably worth another topic ;) I especially wonder about power-saving-light-bulbs...

"Joel Koltner" skrev i en meddelelse news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com...

Old enough to drink a bottle of bleach to become the next Michael Jackson - well one hopes (in vain, but one can at least dream)! news2020 is not easily replaced.