sufficient resolution of the waveform at a minimum the current and voltage should be sampled simultaneously 250 000 times per second the sample collection process is terminated by the dso trigger circuit 39 s detection of the break event at this point the digital samples can be transferred to a general purpose personal computer pc by means of common interfaces such as a serial or parallel connection or a floppy disk the pc is used to analyze the collected waveforms preferably the pc is programmed to calculate and store the breakdown energy for each waveform for example the microsoft excel u00ae spreadsheet program can be used in the preferred method the stored samples representing the last cycle of the voltage waveform would be analyzed alternatively more cycles leading up to the break event could be analyzed to characterize the fluid behavior in the preferred method the sampled waveforms would be processed to calculate the electrical energy expended to raise the current level to the threshold current in the last cycle alternatively or additionally other calculations could be performed these might include but are not limited to the harmonic distortion of the current waveform the ratio of the es to the break energy and the frequency distribution of the current waveform the described method is suitable for laboratory use for field applications it would be advantageous to combine all of the functions of the method particularly the functions of.