Physicists create great balls of fire

New Scientist ^ | June 7, 2006 | Amarendra Swarup

[Izzy Dunne]

Goodness Gracious!

[billorites]

Well, my goodness!

[NormsRevenge]

[Physicist]

Seems to me that years ago I read a paper claiming to create ball lightning in the lab.

[FreedomNeocon]

Yeah, not sure what is different here, have to read more I guess.

I've definately seen this done on the discovery channel before.

[Zeppo]

The high voltage causes enormous currents of up to 60 amps – over 200 times those needed to cause death – to flow through the water for a fraction of a second.

Imagine the breathless prose that the writer would use to describe the even greater current that flows from the power company's lines into the circuit breaker box in your house...

[Salamander]

Wendy O Williams ping

[dalereed]

We figured out how to create hugh balls of fire in the early 50s.

we bought weather baloons at the war surplus store, filled them with hydrogen mixed with air, put a long fuse on them and let them go at dusk.

When they went off they created a hugh ball of fire and managed to break a few windows.

[Buck W.]

That was you?

[billorites]

Hey, put down that Barbie and come sit on Uncle Jerry's lap.

[Swordmaker]

Nikola Tesla frequently demonstrated Ball Lighting in his laboratories in the 20s and 30s...

Real ball lighting can last far longer than these scientists report. My mother tells of a ball of lightning that hit her school when she was a child. It melted a six inch diameter hold in a glass window into her classroom, dropped to the floor and rolled through the classroom, crackling and buzzing, scorching the hardwood floor, out into the hall and hit a radiator, and disappated in a bang.

[lafroste]

I saw ball lightening once. It seemed to skip over the ground at a leisurely pace and lasted for maybe 2 seconds. It seemed bigger than 40 cm across (about 16"). I would have guessed maybe 2-3 feet. It was yellow and blue. It was very strange.

[Swordmaker]

I saw ball lightening once. It seemed to skip over the ground at a leisurely pace and lasted for maybe 2 seconds. It seemed bigger than 40 cm across (about 16"). I would have guessed maybe 2-3 feet. It was yellow and blue. It was very strange.

Several references I have read indicate BL can be from a 1/4" or smaller to several feet in diameter and can last from a fraction of a second to several minutes. Colors vary... probably related to the elements that were present with the plasmoid formed.

[Btrp113Cav]

I have witnessed such an event (no jokes here). A lightening hit on the nose of my aircraft created a blue ball (not mine) approximately softball size that seemed to drift straight aft down the center of the cabin. Lasted maybe 2 or 3 sec and had me puzzled, but not hurt (no jokes here).

[Husker24]

My Grandmother had told me of similar story's from back in the 30's. Ive seen lots of thunderstorms, but never any ball lightning. I wonder if it could be related to drought conditions like those during the dust bowl.

[Peace Is Coming]

Here is a picture of ball lightning.

[shibumi]

"Earlier this year, Israeli scientists created plasma balls by using microwaves to vaporise various materials,..."

Their efforts paralleled those of french scientists who created furry plasma balls by drying toy poodles in microwaves to the tune of "Put Yout Love In Me" sung by WOW from the driver's seat of an exploding Citroen.

WOW(RIP)PONG!

[timer]

They are WAY behind the curve here. Dr Chukanov in Sandy Utah has long since mastered ball lightning and gets over unity power from it. Been there, seen the demonstration. He says he has to be VERY careful, too much output and Sandy Utah becomes a BIG crater. Why don't you see it on the shelf? Would you leave a loaded gun in a nursery for children to play with? This world of infants isn't ready for TOO MUCH energy, esp in the hands of crazy terrorists...

[RadioAstronomer]

Seems to me that years ago I read a paper claiming to create ball lightning in the lab.

Los Alamos - using Submarine batteries. There was film but not sure it was ever proven to be ball lightning.