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LAN_403

Tesladownunder

Fri Jul 14 2006, 01:16AM

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

That is interesting. I will need to look at previous accounts to see if they fit my "theory". Hard to tell here. The linear path, disappearance at ground contact and medium speed are OK and the lifetime of a second or so. Lightning has many opportunities to start the process but a lot of stuff was affected in the house so the origin is not clear.

The other problem with eyewitness accounts is the intense light from lightning that has the potential for after images or perhaps altered colour perception (look at an intense blue light for a while and get a red afterimage if you look at white).
Unfortunately some pressure of work lately so may not get into the shed until the weekend to start some (noisy) experimental work.

Peter

Steve Conner

Fri Jul 14 2006, 10:15AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Personally I always believed that ball lightning can be completely explained as an after-image left on your retina of a fireball that only existed for a fraction of a second during the strike. (or of a reflection of the light from the strike in any shiny surface or shiny round object, if you weren't looking at the bolt directly.)

That explains the persistence, the passing through solid objects, the colours, and the odd floating behaviour (actually caused by your brain's algorithm that makes objects appear to stay still when you move your eyes and head around.)

It also explains how it happens in many different environments, since all you need is a lightning strike, something to make a fireball (or something round and shiny), a pair of eyes, and a brain.

All the other weird behaviour can probably be explained by mental confusion caused by the shock of nearly being hit by lightning. I know it sounds a bit too neat, but still, I challenge anyone to come up with an explanation that survives Occam's Razor any better than mine.

TDU, be careful you don't lose your scientific street cred trying to replicate the Philadelphia Experiment.

Tesladownunder

Fri Jul 14 2006, 10:44AM

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

Steve Conner wrote ...

... All the other weird behaviour can probably be explained by mental confusion caused by the shock of nearly being hit by lightning. I know it sounds a bit too neat, but still, I challenge anyone to come up with an explanation that survives Occam's Razor any better than mine. TDU, be careful you don't lose your scientific street cred trying to replicate the Philadelphia Experiment.

You would be surprised to hear how simple my idea is. All parts are simple if robust and The initial stuff has been obtained. There is not a whiff of free energy involved and nothing comes from Naudins site, Keeley net or USA Tesla

Street cred? Bucket loads if I am successful, but I haven't bet the house on it. I will put the results on 4HV either way but may be delayed if anything publishable.
I agree about the potential for afterimages and it will be important to get video/photo images and not rely on my own eyes particularly if only short range effects are seen.

Peter

Bjørn

Fri Jul 14 2006, 06:39PM

Registered Member #27 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058

Street cred? Bucket loads if I am successful, but I haven't bet the house on it.

I would still be sceptical because you are trying to reproduce something that is not observed in a scientifically acceptable manner (meaning it may not even have a physical existence).

So even if you succeed you don't know if you reproduced anything at all, you will have something that looks like something else that exists mostly in fake photographs and peoples confused memory.

I would find hovering, glowing and buzzing orbs very interesting and scientifically valuable but the science can be wiped out in no time by claiming it to be something without any proof of the fact.

Dr. Dark Current

Fri Jul 14 2006, 07:54PM

Registered Member #152 Joined: Sun Feb 12 2006, 03:36PM
Location: Czech Rep.
Posts: 3384

Steve Conner wrote ...

Personally I always believed that ball lightning can be completely explained as an after-image left on your retina of a fireball that only existed for a fraction of a second during the strike. (or of a reflection of the light from the strike in any shiny surface or shiny round object, if you weren't looking at the bolt directly.)

but how would you explain round holes melted in windows then (as the ball lightning was passing through)?

Madgyver

Fri Jul 14 2006, 08:07PM

Registered Member #177 Joined: Wed Feb 15 2006, 02:16PM
Location: Munich, Germany
Posts: 214

Maybee someone melted a hole in with an Acetylen Torch? Just for being in the paper or stuff.

Tesladownunder

Sat Jul 15 2006, 09:38AM

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

BjÃ¸rn wrote ...

I would still be sceptical because you are trying to reproduce something that is not observed in a scientifically acceptable manner (meaning it may not even have a physical existence).
...I would find hovering, glowing and buzzing orbs very interesting and scientifically valuable but the science can be wiped out in no time by claiming it to be something without any proof of the fact.

Agreed, but judging by the interest in the origin of this thread, anything that is even close may be of great interest.
Demonstrating this properly with an acceptable level of proof such as with videos, is not something that can be wiped out particularly with a sound basis of the mechanism to explain it.
Just one more sleep before starting construction of 2 prototypes of different energy densities.

Now here is one of my early shots at 2kJ and is a video frame grab. No BL yet but some interesting shaping of the plasma against my shed. I have cut off the equipment which includes my capacitor bank. You can see the string of the switch. It is a simple set up but I need to rethink the way I deliver the energy.

Peter

1152956307 10 FT11122 Pulsecapball2kjlargeapvid1crop

Tesladownunder

Sat Jul 15 2006, 11:02AM

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

Well, this is a double post but the information is new and of interest.
My setup was actually OK. On viewing video loops from shots in the evening in shadow, I can see the effect I am looking for on consecutive frames going out of the picture into the bright background well above the shed. The speed is 3 frames in 3 feet ie 25ft/sec (8m/s).
Note that this is NOT ball lightning (whatever that is) but may be the basis for it and has the slow speed and linearity I expected. Diameter is just over 1 foot and constant. All seems to fit so far.
Parts cost was about $8. (Plus an expensive pulse cap bank however energies are only 2kJ and the pulse is not too critical so defib caps or an MOT bank cap might suffice)

Now I need to work on luminosity and persistence and get better pics. (Sadly my good camera is dead so no time exposure, high res stuff).

I have screen grabs but they will give too much away at this stage.

I have now transferred to a separate thread as this is quite different to the original water experiment.

Peter

Tom540

Sat Jul 15 2006, 06:37PM

Banned on 3/17/2009.
Registered Member #487 Joined: Sun Jul 09 2006, 01:22AM
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Posts: 617

I wanna know why they call it ball lightning. It's not even close. It's like they just called it that to get peoples attention.

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