>Well , there is no way that the spark would fire beyond the groud thingies
.
>
>I think what they are trying to do is create a cone shaped spark .
>
>Sounds about as gimmicky as the Spitfires .
A spark is only going to jump the shortest distance. All these things are
doing is providing a lot more surface area that the spark may jump to. If
one ground terminal starts to wear away from the electrode, the next one
becomes the shortest distance. I love the hype those SplitFire commercials
try to shove down everyone's throat. They show a "conventional" plus and
there is just one spark jumping at low RPM. Then they show the SplitFire
plug with a capacitive discharge at high RPM. Making it look like a big
benefit.
A spark is just an electron being transferred from one point to another.
The main advantage to a platinum plug over a standard copper one is that it
has more electrons in it's outer electron cloud that can jump. Plus since a
platinum atom has more a higher electron cloud level it takes less energy to
excite the electron to another level and make it jump. That's why they
supposedly last in excess of 100,000 miles.
Gosh I never thought those chemistry classes would come in handy. :)
John Olden
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