When 50,000 volts go through a wire at 5,000,000 FPS - The Slow Mo Guys - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: felixd
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2025, 01:30:28 pm
content: Blowing a wire with 50kV with super slow camera capture.https://youtu.be/BTkZ36g4GOs?si=1OjtjhEYBupY3XZL

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2025, 02:32:10 pm
content: I find the idea of "50,000 volts through a wire" confusing. Without watching the video, I assume they mean dumping a 50kV capacitor across a short (a thin wire), which will lead to a substantial potential across the wire, but more importantly a lot of current...

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2025, 04:15:45 pm
content: Indeed. But with that kind of mind-blowing audience, you have to cut some communication corners.15M+ subscribers, 460k+ views in less than 24 hours... that's just mind-blowing. Frankly more so than filming a piece of wire at 5 MFPS.

author: jonpaul
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2025, 06:12:28 pm
content: See TRW streak cam and Scientific American magazine art on "Exploding Wires" May 1962.Inspired by the art I built a 20 kV charger with Ford spark coil and 1B3 rect, a tomato box of surplus HV (oil) caps and a porceline knife swith.Used #40 magnet wire.Won a science fair 1st prize 1963 in ManhattanJon

author: iMo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2025, 06:23:22 pm
content: Exploding wires are used (since the first blast in 1945) as a precise igniters of the explosives in nukes..

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2025, 06:26:21 pm
content: Quote from: iMo on July 31, 2025, 06:23:22 pmFunnily, as a kid, I was using steel wool, batteries and a pushbutton to ignite firecrackers, it worked pretty well. Being able to fire them just pushing a button looked fancy to me at the time. Kids!!

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2025, 06:42:32 pm
content: Scientific Americahttps://wkbpic.com/wkbx/SA/1962/1962-05-01.pdfI wanted to buy one of the first HP cameras that Dave ended up getting for a review. No luck. On a hobby budget, 1000 fps Sony camerahttps://youtu.be/ivZ7F7u10W4?t=235Light bulb at 1000fpsThe expansion of 1" of copper wire is enough to power a cork gun

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 02, 2025, 10:46:34 am
content: Quote from: iMo on July 31, 2025, 06:23:22 pmCame here to say the same thing, this is why there exist photos and footage of these things dating back to times when you'd have thought the tech to record it didn't exist yet.Minor nit though, exploding-bridgewire detonators haven't been used for a long time, what's used today are slapper detonators which have numerous advantages over exploding-bridgewire ones.

author: iMo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 02, 2025, 11:24:50 am
content: Quote from: 5U4GB on August 02, 2025, 10:46:34 amTo make the implosion symmetrical they needed to blow-up all 32 exploding bridge wires in sync well below 1 usecs (considering the size of the expl. lenses and aprox 7km/sec burning speed of the lenses), afaik. Therefore the high voltage cables there on the picture had all the same length and I think the cables were actually coax cables with uniform parameters like propagation delays, etc..