Ball Lightning Explained?

Anonymous Coward sent it in: a BBC story that says, "Two New Zealand scientists think they can explain one of the great mysteries of the natural world - ball lightning."

Comments

Make your own ball lightning....

[Arcanix]

This link has lots of info on ball lightning and you can even get instructions on how to create your very own ball lightning, woohoo! ;)

Ball Lightning

Tomorrow's Jon Katz article

[Amphigory]

Scientists were shocked yesterday at the discovery of two lonely geeks in New Zealand. These geeks, working alone for years, finally explained the existence of ball lightning, thereby removing the last barrier to a new age where geeks will rule the earth.

Religious leaders around the world were knocked on their antiquated rear-ends at the news. Finally, it has been proved beyond a doubt that a phenomenon mistaken by three ignorant peasants in France in the 14th century for the prescence of God was in fact just a ball of silicon! Religious leaders around the world will no longer be able to oppress people with their narrow-minded, antiquated ideas about right and wrong based on these putative sightings of deity.

Dare we hope that this will finally usher in the end of religion? That we can have an age based on stark individualism and rampant materialism? That silicon will finally defeat the oppressors that have held we^H^H (oops -- too grammatical) us geeks down for millenia?

One thing is sure: nothing can ever be the same now that we have explained a rare meterological phenomenon! (Interesting article. BTW, I saw ball lightning once -- no, I didn't think it was God. But it was one of the freakiest things I've ever seen. Let the moderation begin!)

Re:Fun stuff!

[ninjaz]

With the help of Google, I found this article in Scientific American about ball lightning/St. Elmo's Fire: http://www.sciam.com/askexper t/physics/physics35.html

According to it, St. Elmo's Fire always stays attached to an object, while ball lightning can "drift around like a soap bubble".

Another page with lots of Ball Lightning resources is here: http://www.sciam.com/askexper t/physics/physics30.html

Possible sighting of 'silicon lightning'

[Anonymous Coward]

I may have seen the phenomenon described in the article [details below], but -- and this is important -- it was definitely not ball-shaped.

Nor would there be any reason to expect the phenomena described inn the article to be ball shaped. The best that can be said is that it could concievably sometimes manifest in the manner described by the ball lightning reports.

My sighting fits how I'd expect a silicon dustball (or if you prefer: 'clustering microspheres of condensed silicon vapor') to behave... namely much like the 'carbon' dustballs (dust bunnies) they themselves used as analogies in the article

DESCRIPTION:
It was in 1977, while I was doing a go/no-go test of a batch of 10A (junk surplus) silicon full-wave rectifiers of 1960's vintage. My test rig was an AC plug hastily wired to four 'pin' sockets, two neon bulbs and two high voltage diodes -- plugged into what I thought was a circuit-breaker protected outlet. (the circuit breaker was later found to be shorted 'on')

About halfway through the batch (100% pass rate), a rectifier failed dramatically, producing a sight that has mystified me for 20+ years. I have always described it as a 'bright 4-7 cm strikingly violet plasma-like flame' that shot out of the hole blown in the side of rectifier.

• Its shape was irregular and (very) roughly conical or pyramidal, with the apex at the hole in the rectifier (described below), and the 'base' extending outward. The base had very spiky rough flame-like projections, but they did not move appreciably, unlike the irregular flames from a bunsen burner with a flame spreader
• It had a distinct quivering nature (low frequency, amplitude of 4-8mm)
• It had the kind of optical diffuseness that I recently saw in a display of highly fluorescent aerogels (often described as 'frozen smoke)
• It had definite borders, but they looked out-of-focus (in retrospect: perhaps high frequency vibration with amplitude if ca 1-2mm?)
• Its volume and shape appeared to remain constant for the 45 or so seconds I watched it (then curiosity got the better of me, and I switched off the power to see if it would return
• with the power off, I could see that the silicon junction (a few mm rectangle) was nearly completely vaporized, with the remaining silicon, the metal contacts and the hole in the plastic casing showing distinctly molten edges. the hole was a characteristic 'ejection crater'
• There was a scrap of very lint-like 'ash' on my bench, which I didn't examine further (alas) believing it was burned casing.

In short: a quivering bit 'o' silicon lint glowing
in a striking beautiful violet

Since this occurred in a normal atmosphere, at room temperature (low humidity - that room was always dry in winter), I'm guessing others have seen similar displays. any other reports?