2l8 ADVANCED ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM. 



and currents in the successive laps of the ribbon wave a precise 

 knowledge of the distribution of voltage and current over the 

 line at any instant may be obtained. Thus, after a thousandth 

 of a second, the total length of the ribbon wave would be 186 



wire 



short-circuited end of line ^ 



t 



wire 



wire 



ribbon wave 



i-E 



-E 



+1 



i-E 



-E 



+1 



axis of J 



curve of growth of 

 current at B 



axis of time 



Fig. 154. 

 Same as Fig. 153 except that distant end of line is short-circuited. 



miles which would give a definite number of complete laps and 

 a fraction of the next lap. By adding a number of laps in this 

 way, curves can be plotted showing the actual distribution of 

 voltage and current over the line at any given instant; or values 

 of current and voltage at a given point of the line can be found for 

 successive instants and from this data curves can be plotted 



