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LAN_403

Sulaiman

Thu Jul 27 2006, 10:56AM

Registered Member #162 Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 10:25AM
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3140

For those of you researching BALL LIGHTNING
i HAVE SOME BAD NEWS....

Unless you can produce 10^5 to 10^9 Joules
you may fail.

Reference

If any of you are IEEE members I'd appreciate a transcript.

Marko

Thu Jul 27 2006, 01:45PM

Registered Member #89 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 02:40PM
Location: Zadar, Croatia
Posts: 3145

I must admit that that article sounds like total crap to me O_O
Slow, High-mass neutrinos?
Then they imply pair-production as cause of explosion?

Very imaginative article, tough, they would need few more 'special' particles to accomplish that

And maybe change physics a bit.

I don't say i'm some kind of 1337 physics wizard but this doesn't make much sense to me...

Terry Fritz

Thu Jul 27 2006, 03:21PM

Registered Member #393 Joined: Tue Apr 18 2006, 12:30AM
Location:
Posts: 297

Hi,

There is another report of an attempt to repeat the experiment here:

I think is is all very real, but they did not give the precise info needed to reproduce it. If so, it is just a matter of time...

The IEEE article sounds like crap to me too

Sounds like something the Corums would come up with. I hope IEEE is not starting a pseudoscience thing...

Cheers,

Terry

Brian

Thu Jul 27 2006, 04:48PM

Registered Member #117 Joined: Fri Feb 10 2006, 05:22AM
Location: WI
Posts: 9

I have access to IEEE Xplore. I searched for ball lightning yielded 45 results in IEEE publications. I also found this link on the IEEE website, unfortunatly the link on the page is broken, but apparently the speach did accually take place.
Link!

Conundrum

Fri Aug 04 2006, 11:55PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4059

Hi all.
Recall that "spintronics" has been in the news recently as a way to reduce power dissipation in CPU's and memory.

Also recall that the basic idea is to align the normally random electron spins in a given material (usually iron/chromium nanowires or thin metal layers).

Perhaps ball lightning and other related phenomena might be generated in the lab by manipulating electron spins within a plasma such that the overall structure has an axial alignment in the direction of travel.

It appears that if this is indeed the case, on hitting a dielectric or metal the plasma will dissipate but the majority of the energy stored in the electron spins is transferred across the barrier, reappearing on the other side in a reduced but still active form.

An experiment to try might be to use an array of magnetised iron wires arranged in an x-y grid, so that the resulting corona has a spin alignment.
If the discharge is intense enough the plasmoid should form and move off in the direction of least resistance (away from the wires).

Regards, -A

...

Sat Aug 05 2006, 08:12PM

Registered Member #56 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445

And that would occur in nature how?

Tesladownunder

Sun Aug 06 2006, 01:26AM

Registered Member #10 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 09:45AM
Location: Bunbury, Australia
Posts: 1424

Speaking to my physics prof the other day and he recalled an experiment in 50 Torr argon with indium sputtering. Aluminium was used to line the bell jar. They had a lot of problem with bright luminescent balls that would appear and char the aluminium black. It was a nuisance and never got documented or photographed properly but the nature was never explained.

Peter

Bored Chemist

Sun Aug 06 2006, 09:28AM

Registered Member #193 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022

A kilo of pasta stores energy in the right ballpark (1.5E7J). Of course, that doesn't get the energy density that these phenomena are about.

Molten indium attacks aluminium; the vapour will too. Pity there are no pictures, but it seems like a relatively easy experiment to duplicate.

Conundrum

Mon Aug 21 2006, 01:32PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4059

Yep. I accidentally duplicated this annoying effect when trying to melt some indium alloy in my microwave. Sparks followd by a BIG bright blue-violet fireball that seemed stable for about half a second.

It might be worth using an indium electrode in an intense RF field to duplicate this effect, finally an experiment I can try :)

Alternatively, a pair of indium electrodes underwater?

edit:-
Warren Buckles (Senior Technologist, American Superconductor Corp.), 1993,
Madison, WI, USA. Email 2000.
In 1993 I was testing a superconducting energy storage magnet in my companyâ€™s
laboratory and accidentally discharged the unit into a metal oxide varistor. The
resulting flashâ€“bang was spectacular and yielded a ball of plasma-like material that
persisted for several seconds while rising out of the apparatus. I recall the ball being
about 300 mm in diameter and blue-white to yellow but such recollections under
stress are unreliable.
The magnetâ€™s stored energy was about 1 MJ and the varistor had a nominal rating
of 10 kJ and was manufactured by Harris in the US. The magnetâ€™s circulating current
at the time of the discharge was about 1 kA. As these varistors use a silicon oxide
compound as their working element, I find your argument relating to filamentary
chains of silicon oxides interesting.
-A

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