To me it seems not entirely implausible that both the OPs main conclusions can be derived from Culshaw's 1959 paper:
1. "First of all, the radius of the wires matters. As r→0, the shielding goes away. This, we now realize, must be why your microwave oven door has so much metal in it, and is not just a sheet of glass with a thin wire grid."
This conclusion could possibly be derivable from Eq 26 in Culshaw's paper. There's a clear dependence on r there. It's not completely obvious (to me) though, as it seems Culshaw is studying a more general case with a 3D structure of rods/wires.
2. "Secondly, the shielding is linear in the gap size, not exponential."
This conclusion too could possibly be derivable from Eq 26; there's a linear dependence on a there. But for the same reasons as above it's not entirely obvious (to me).
Seems to me that Trefethen should at the very least read Culshaw's paper though, if he hasn't already. :P
Can anyone with some electrical field theory knowledge/experience make a better comparison? :)
To me it seems not entirely implausible that both the OPs main conclusions can be derived from Culshaw's 1959 paper:
1. "First of all, the radius of the wires matters. As r→0, the shielding goes away. This, we now realize, must be why your microwave oven door has so much metal in it, and is not just a sheet of glass with a thin wire grid."
This conclusion could possibly be derivable from Eq 26 in Culshaw's paper. There's a clear dependence on r there. It's not completely obvious (to me) though, as it seems Culshaw is studying a more general case with a 3D structure of rods/wires.
2. "Secondly, the shielding is linear in the gap size, not exponential."
This conclusion too could possibly be derivable from Eq 26; there's a linear dependence on a there. But for the same reasons as above it's not entirely obvious (to me).
Seems to me that Trefethen should at the very least read Culshaw's paper though, if he hasn't already. :P
Can anyone with some electrical field theory knowledge/experience make a better comparison? :)