Magnetic Permeability ... I can't find anyone talking about this !!!!!

[Jack Noskills]

Can someone explain this ?

I put 1 uF capacitor in series with hot line (50 Hz, 220 V) and connect it to a light bulb. About 80 mA goes through and light lits very dimmly. Capacitor limits the current.

Next I put coil with iron core in series with hot line and again through a light bulb. Light hardly lits, self inductance of the coil is so high that it prevents current flow so it is a choke. Normal behaviour for this coil as it is ripped from a working transformer.

Finally I put the same capacitor in series with iron cored coil through a lamp. Lamp lits almost to full brightness. I add a second coil in parallel in the same core so that coils oppose each other. They generate flux in opposite direction and thus feed each other. Lamp lits to full brightness. Funny thing happened here. In my test I got two E shaped cores face to face. When I added enough load those cores broke apart because of bucking magnetic fields. When this happened, brightness of the lamps went down.

I understand that adding a C with L forms a series LC circuit and C makes self inductance to go down in the coil allowing current to pass. But why more current passes with L and C (resistance of coil 165 ohms) than with plain C ? I would have expected that since C limits the current then 80 mA is the maximum that can get through.

If the iron core was such that there was no loop, I-core, then there was just a little increase in brightness of light.