Measuring the energy output in a dry version of gotoluc's spark. OU?

[raptor731]

Hi everybody,

I've been following gotoluc's main thread, and was impressed with the amount of work people put into creating variations of his circuit, and implementing them in cars. I remember at least one person saying that he had a noticeable increase in power (good!), but no significant increase in mpg. All this got me to thinking (dangerous, I know  ), I wonder if the spark itself is overunity?

I made a very simple duplication of his spark (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktcfaP5sjDA), and noticed that WITHOUT WATER the spark had a very pronounced difference.
The color (mainly blue/some purple) points to ionized nitrogen and oxygen, respectively, which is of course to be expected. What is not expected is the intensity of the light when the diodes are attached. Is there more energy coming out of the spark than going in?



What I intend to do is find out the energy in the spark by:

1. Measuring the luminance of the spark (I can do this).
2. Measuring the duration of the spark itself (will be in micro or nanoseconds, and I can NOT do this).
3. Use W=J/s --> J=Ws to find energy of spark in Joules.
4. Compare to charged cap to see if there is overunity.

I'm a poor student (and I do not have a scope... ) working on a shoestring budget here, guys, so if someone could help me out by suggesting a lowcost method of time measurement, or could duplicate my circuit and record with a very expensive camera (kind that can snap pics of bullets in midair), I would be grateful.

Cheers,

Mark

[raptor731]

I'm going to build a timer circuit to find out spark time instead of a scope...will post a pic of it when its done.