31 Oct
2002
31 Oct
'02
11:39 a.m.
I know this doesn't make sense at first but it is
most likely
that the failure is in the HeNe tube and not the power supply.
The general failure starts with the lasing pulsing at slower
and slower rates until it stops working.
The problem is caused by the He leaking out of the tube.
I know you'd say, how can that happen when inside the tube
is a partial vacuum. Well, it has to do with partial pressures.
The partial pressure of He is lower out side of the tube than
inside, so it leaks out. It is also related to the slipperiness
of He. It leaks through everything, including glass.
Try another tube that is known to be good.
Dwight
He is atom weight (that's old style bec I was taught this 14 years
ago), of 2 (I think) so it is MUCH lighter than everything except H
and will float out on top of everything too. Hence used in balloons.
Also He is noble means it doens't react to anything because their
electron layer is filled, only two electrons orbiting core made up
of two photons, two neutons. Utter stable except to split it with
energy knocking them apart (fission).
H reacts to oxiziders becuase oxidizers has electron holes availble
shell that can share more electrons with another different type of
atoms: for example. Burn H and O2 you get water and heat.
Knowing the basic rules of electron shells of given atoms and you
can mentally "build" elements. H20 is element, water.
Cheers,
Wizard