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Huge Tesla Coils Will Recreate Natural Lightning

Posted by samzenpus on from the warm-up-the-lightning-cannon dept.

jjp9999 writes "In order to study the nature of lighting, the team at Lightning on Demand (LOD) plans to build two, ten-story-tall Tesla coils—the largest ever—that will blast arcs of lightning hundreds of feet in length. LOD founder Greg Leyh said the project aims to reveal details on the initiation process of natural lightning, an area that remains a mystery, since smaller generated arcs have more trouble breaking through the air. It is believed that 'laboratory-scale electric arcs start to gain lightning-like abilities once they grow past about 200ft in length,' according to the LOD website, and so the team hopes to build Tesla coils large enough to do this. According to Leyh, 'Understanding how lightning forms [and grows] is the first step towards being able to control where lightning strikes or being able to suppress it completely in certain areas.'"

14 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. Exciting! by Aerynvala · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can't wait for the SyFy movie based on the 'true story' :)

    --
    http://transformativeworks.org/
    1. Re:Exciting! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Ironically yesterday there was a SyFy movie about the topic of a madman controlling the weather from his iPhone.

      There's a zap for that.

    2. Re:Exciting! by HateBreeder · · Score: 3, Funny

      I will never forgive the SyFy channel for perverting the spelling of "Sci-Fi".
      Not to mention killing off Stargate... or any decent show for that matter. We're now stuck with rubbish like Eureka.
      Maybe they've done some surveys and decided that their target audience should actually be a bunch of retards.

      --
      Sigs are for the weak.
    3. Re:Exciting! by ScrewMaster · · Score: 4, Funny

      Not saying it isn't theoretically possible, but to be able to "set it up" to happen just at the right moment when a call is made to "kill" the person isn't realistically plausible.

      Well, if you had a high-powered microwave beam capable of ionizing the air above the person you are trying to assassinate you might have better luck. Of course, from a practical standpoint you might as well just cook him with the thing and forget the lightning.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
    4. Re:Exciting! by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 5, Funny

      So your plan is to turn yourself into the antenna that will send the lightning to your target. What could possibly go wrong?

    5. Re:Exciting! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      there needs to be a +1 uuuggggghhhh.

      You can get a 100% refund of the cover charge at the door.

    6. Re:Exciting! by bryan1945 · · Score: 3, Funny

      I thought "Sharktapus" was a documentary!

      --
      Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
  2. Atmosphere by dan_barrett · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hopefully they're building this over a smallish castle + mad scientist lab with convenient skylights, along with the worlds largest knife switch

    1. Re:Atmosphere by mjwalshe · · Score: 4, Funny

      and an Igor - They know the secret of storing lightning in jars

  3. Re:Blasfemy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Don't worry, I spoke to the invisible pink unicorn (blessed be her holy hooves) and she is fine with it.

    The One true One. Her Horniness. She whose hooves many never be shod. Her Pinkness.

  4. Re:Wasn't this mentioned a week ago? by mkraft · · Score: 5, Funny

    Welcome to Slashdot. You must be new here.

  5. Things that make you go BOOM! by Dogtanian · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm having horrible flashbacks to C&C: Red Alert.

    I'm having horrible flashbacks to C&C: Music Factory.

    --
    "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
  6. Re:Where to put a 10' story Tesla coil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    As long as nobody will sue them if he infringes on some imaginary property, they won't give a shit.

  7. Siberian Institute for Power Engineering? Really? by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 5, Funny

    Holy shit, if I were a supervillain, that's exactly the sort of institute that I'd want to run. They probably say: "What happens in Siberia stays in Siberia, except for the bits that were accidentally atomized. Those are floating around somewhere in the upper atmosphere." Also, they probably say: "In Siberia, a couple of people can hear you scream, but nobody really gives a fuck."