The Resistance of Sparks

A relation describing the temporal variation of the channel resistance of the sparks was derived, using Spitzer's formula for the resistivity of a fully and singly ionized plasma, on the assumption that the current was homogeneously distributed over the cross section of the spark channel. The relation predicts values of the resistance similar to those obtained by the relation of Rompe and Weizel. The reason for the difference between theory and experiment may be due to the fact that the electron density of the channel, which was assumed to be constant in the derivation of the relation, is time dependent.