Copper or Carbon Core Wire

[Sean in PA]

(quoted from post at 08:36:17 06/04/23) Sir it's all right here: V-L di/dt per the L/R exponential time constant. The L essentially blocks initial current so the current starts at essentially zero and rises exponentially to the max value determined by the resultant voltage and circuit resistance.

The voltage across the coil doesn't fire the plugs. If you have voltage but no current you haven't dissipated any energy. The stored energy in the coil is what fires the plug and the circuit current is what gets that energy to the plug. Therefore with no resistance, considering the inductance value L, the current gets to the plug fast, builds up voltage across the gap because it's blocked (high R at the plug) the voltage continues to rise and bang, the gap breaks down into a VR plasma and you have a current impulse....... for the length of dt.
Putting resistance in the circuit slows down this delivery mechanism preventing the sharp current discharge spike. Is there voltage developed across resistance wire during this discharge, of course......you have R and current flowing through it.

I guess I'm just dense, but isn't the resistance of the circuit infinite up until the spark actually happens? If there is no current flowing then there is effectively infinite resistance. The energy that it takes to create a spark that jumps the gap is getting created in an environment of infinite resistance regardless of what the resistance will be once the spark occurs and the current actually starts flowing, so wouldn't your calculation always have the same result? I can only see the resistance of the circuit affecting how much current flows once the energy increases enough to create the spark.