Electric Arc

Electric arc is a curve of intense heat and light formed when a strong electric current leaps across a gap between two electrodes. Gases in the air between the electrodes serve as a conductor and transmit the current across the gap.

Sir Humphry Davy, an English chemist, discovered the principle of the electric arc about 1808. Today, electric arcs are used in arc lights and arc welding. Electric arcs may also serve as ion sources in particle accelerators, devices that are used to study nuclear and elementary particles.

Contributor: Robert B. Prigo, Ph.D., Prof. of Physics, Middlebury College.

Electric Arc

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