RESONANCE IN HIGH FREQUENCY
Here is a quick look at why the high frequency distortion matters. It is all about resonant frequency. What is true is that all material in all forms has a speed with which it vibrates. Water for instance will vibrate at about 167 KHz. That is the principle behind the microwave oven. Build a transmitter to broadcast at that frequency and anything with water in it will become hot. The reason is because that is what constitutes energy levels in all materials. If they vibrate slowly then they have little energy and we detect them as cool or even cold. Vibrate a liquid slowly enough and it will become a solid, just like water can become ice. Speed up the vibration and instead of a liquid it can become a gas. Water when vibrated fast enough is called steam or even just vapor when mixed with other gasses such as in our atmosphere.
The speed of vibration in light can determine the color. Some colors are not visible to human eyes but are seen by some animals. It is still light at various speeds of vibration.
For now, the only resonating we are concerned about in this paper is in the range of solids at our comfortable temperature. That range includes resonant frequencies that vibrate as low as 19 cycles and as high as 100 thousand cycles. So we don’t keep putting all the zeros behind the big numbers we just call anything above 1,000 with the connotation of a “K” When we say kilo. . . . something we mean a thousand. A thousand grams is a kilogram. A thousand cycles in speed of vibration is a kilocycle. So 100 KHz is saying one hundred thousand Hertz which is another name for the speed of vibration.
We stop at 100KHz because above that we are into most liquids in our world. Higher vibrations get into gasses, light, radio frequencies and types of other energy such as light.
Please understand why I am writing this as simple as I can so that anyone will understand. For those of you who already knew this, I apologize. However, what I will explain next I have found that few knew these things. But before I got into what is not known much about, I had to make sure that everyone understood the basics. Fair enough?
Now. What I will rehearse to you is not absolute at all. I tried once to declare the resonant frequency of iron only to find so many grades of iron and iron alloys that pinning iron down to a close resonant frequency became impossible and subject to a fair challenge. Suffice it to say that most metals vibrate at low frequencies if they have a relatively heavy weight according to size. Iron is a heavy metal and will resonate at a lower frequency than say copper. And copper will resonate at a lower frequency than aluminum. You understand what I am saying.
Most of the metals we use vibrate in the ranges between 35KHz and 55KHz with lead actually vibrating at a lower frequency than a rock which most will resonate in the 9KHz range. What I mean are the metals we use in electricity and to make things out of. If we were to look at a scale that said a wire was carrying frequencies in the 30 to 40KHz range we could be reasonably sure we could heat up any iron base material such as steel or the iron core of a transformer or motor. If we saw a wire carrying frequencies from 35 to 45KHz we could be reasonably sure to heat up copper or brass. Aluminum will become hot if enough resonant frequency in the 50KHz range is present.
Now let me make myself clear on this matter. Low, medium and high frequencies are created all the time by electronics and the action of electrical devices such as motors, power supplies, light ballasts, and anything that changes electricity in any way. When those frequencies mentioned above are present, just being near a steel box will warm it up. Worse, enough energy in the 35KHz will simply make transformer cores hot. Sometimes so hot they are harmful to touch. The same can be true for motors. A motor that is not loaded highly within it’s power capacity can be hot to the touch with no other reason that enough high frequency harmonics are present in the iron resonant frequency range to make it hot. But not at all because it is working too hard.
That is also true for copper and aluminum wires that are not pushed at all within their ampacity range but are hot and maybe even overheating. That explains why a wire such as a 12 Gage Copper which can handle 2000 watts easily is hot with only a 10 watt load. Enough resonant harmonics are present in sufficient power to make the wire hot and even burn it up.
Since we are dealing with all solids, insulation also falls in that category. If enough power in the harmonic range of 75 to 85 KHz, any Mylar, Vinyl, Acrylic, Rubber, or other polystyrenes can be made warm, hot and even melted away by the mere presence of their resonant frequencies.
Now if we find powerful frequencies at everything between 30KHz and 85KHz and you have what burns up all motors. The iron core is hot. The wire is hot. The insulation is hot. And between them, any failure of any material destroys the ability of a motor or transformer to work. The myth is that we have all believed for ages that motors and transformers fail because they are over worked. It is almost never true anymore when they do fail that they were even worked hard at all. 95% of the time, failure is due from enough high frequency harmonics that just gradually eroded them away with overheating in all their resonating categories, and not because of load.
To end this, I include a most interesting material. The most plentiful material on the surface of our planet is silicone. Our rocks are mostly made of that. But refine it very carefully and it will conduct electricity in ways we can control and make it do clever things. Refined silicone is what all our electronic parts are made of. Diodes, Transistors, Triacs, Light Emitting Diodes, and complicated chips are made up of one form of refined silicone or another. If we completely eliminate the upper frequencies in the 95KHz range, none of our electronics will be hot or warm anymore. No more need for fans to cool off your computer. No more need for air conditioning in a server room.
Even glass is in this category. A light that would not burn your hand at all can be tuned at a high enough frequency to cut thick glass as slick as a hot knife through butter. Or maybe another light that can also be cool to your hand but can cut right through the heaviest steel just like the proverbial hot knife. All work on the principle of resonant frequency to super heat up any substance enough to melt it and therefore cut right through it.
The purpose of this paper is to explain why we don’t like high frequencies in our electrical circuits. If they are strong enough, their presence will destroy what we need to help us do what we want with our various tools. And in the electrical world, these frequencies are the real reason that so many of our electrical parts don’t last very long. They were not worked to death , they were just destroyed by the presence of enough of their own resonant frequency to burn them up.
The speed of vibration in light can determine the color. Some colors are not visible to human eyes but are seen by some animals. It is still light at various speeds of vibration.
For now, the only resonating we are concerned about in this paper is in the range of solids at our comfortable temperature. That range includes resonant frequencies that vibrate as low as 19 cycles and as high as 100 thousand cycles. So we don’t keep putting all the zeros behind the big numbers we just call anything above 1,000 with the connotation of a “K” When we say kilo. . . . something we mean a thousand. A thousand grams is a kilogram. A thousand cycles in speed of vibration is a kilocycle. So 100 KHz is saying one hundred thousand Hertz which is another name for the speed of vibration.
We stop at 100KHz because above that we are into most liquids in our world. Higher vibrations get into gasses, light, radio frequencies and types of other energy such as light.
Please understand why I am writing this as simple as I can so that anyone will understand. For those of you who already knew this, I apologize. However, what I will explain next I have found that few knew these things. But before I got into what is not known much about, I had to make sure that everyone understood the basics. Fair enough?
Now. What I will rehearse to you is not absolute at all. I tried once to declare the resonant frequency of iron only to find so many grades of iron and iron alloys that pinning iron down to a close resonant frequency became impossible and subject to a fair challenge. Suffice it to say that most metals vibrate at low frequencies if they have a relatively heavy weight according to size. Iron is a heavy metal and will resonate at a lower frequency than say copper. And copper will resonate at a lower frequency than aluminum. You understand what I am saying.
Most of the metals we use vibrate in the ranges between 35KHz and 55KHz with lead actually vibrating at a lower frequency than a rock which most will resonate in the 9KHz range. What I mean are the metals we use in electricity and to make things out of. If we were to look at a scale that said a wire was carrying frequencies in the 30 to 40KHz range we could be reasonably sure we could heat up any iron base material such as steel or the iron core of a transformer or motor. If we saw a wire carrying frequencies from 35 to 45KHz we could be reasonably sure to heat up copper or brass. Aluminum will become hot if enough resonant frequency in the 50KHz range is present.
Now let me make myself clear on this matter. Low, medium and high frequencies are created all the time by electronics and the action of electrical devices such as motors, power supplies, light ballasts, and anything that changes electricity in any way. When those frequencies mentioned above are present, just being near a steel box will warm it up. Worse, enough energy in the 35KHz will simply make transformer cores hot. Sometimes so hot they are harmful to touch. The same can be true for motors. A motor that is not loaded highly within it’s power capacity can be hot to the touch with no other reason that enough high frequency harmonics are present in the iron resonant frequency range to make it hot. But not at all because it is working too hard.
That is also true for copper and aluminum wires that are not pushed at all within their ampacity range but are hot and maybe even overheating. That explains why a wire such as a 12 Gage Copper which can handle 2000 watts easily is hot with only a 10 watt load. Enough resonant harmonics are present in sufficient power to make the wire hot and even burn it up.
Since we are dealing with all solids, insulation also falls in that category. If enough power in the harmonic range of 75 to 85 KHz, any Mylar, Vinyl, Acrylic, Rubber, or other polystyrenes can be made warm, hot and even melted away by the mere presence of their resonant frequencies.
Now if we find powerful frequencies at everything between 30KHz and 85KHz and you have what burns up all motors. The iron core is hot. The wire is hot. The insulation is hot. And between them, any failure of any material destroys the ability of a motor or transformer to work. The myth is that we have all believed for ages that motors and transformers fail because they are over worked. It is almost never true anymore when they do fail that they were even worked hard at all. 95% of the time, failure is due from enough high frequency harmonics that just gradually eroded them away with overheating in all their resonating categories, and not because of load.
To end this, I include a most interesting material. The most plentiful material on the surface of our planet is silicone. Our rocks are mostly made of that. But refine it very carefully and it will conduct electricity in ways we can control and make it do clever things. Refined silicone is what all our electronic parts are made of. Diodes, Transistors, Triacs, Light Emitting Diodes, and complicated chips are made up of one form of refined silicone or another. If we completely eliminate the upper frequencies in the 95KHz range, none of our electronics will be hot or warm anymore. No more need for fans to cool off your computer. No more need for air conditioning in a server room.
Even glass is in this category. A light that would not burn your hand at all can be tuned at a high enough frequency to cut thick glass as slick as a hot knife through butter. Or maybe another light that can also be cool to your hand but can cut right through the heaviest steel just like the proverbial hot knife. All work on the principle of resonant frequency to super heat up any substance enough to melt it and therefore cut right through it.
The purpose of this paper is to explain why we don’t like high frequencies in our electrical circuits. If they are strong enough, their presence will destroy what we need to help us do what we want with our various tools. And in the electrical world, these frequencies are the real reason that so many of our electrical parts don’t last very long. They were not worked to death , they were just destroyed by the presence of enough of their own resonant frequency to burn them up.