Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Are switches supposed to spark?
Message-ID: <1990Aug22.171934.24558@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <27155@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 90 17:19:34 GMT

In article <27155@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> atn@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Alan Nishioka) writes:
>Are switches supposed to spark when you switch them? ...

It's pretty much inevitable when they are carrying noticeable currents.
(Breaking the arc is the dominant design problem of really big circuit
breakers, in fact -- when you try to cut off a circuit carrying, say,
1000 A at 50 kV, you get some impressive sparks! :-))
-- 
Committees do harm merely by existing. | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
                       -Freeman Dyson  |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry