[extropy-chat] Re: Ball lightning

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Dirk Bruere <dirk at neopax.com> wrote:
> I rather doubt the uwave explanation.
> The kind of intensity that would create and sustain a ball of plasma 
> would have serious effects well outside of that zone as well.
> I suspect that it is some kind of self confining plasma with very
> high currents flowing in very low resistance paths.

Given that ball lightning can go through walls, I doubt that plasma has
anything to do with it either.

With lightning, you are dealing with tens of millions of volts and
millions of amps. The amount of energy in this is essentially
electrostatic, not electromagnetic in nature. ANY dielectric material
can hold a charge field: air, brick, gypsum board, etc. but once
established it is the field itself that holds itself until discharged
through a conductor.

My uncles home was infested by ball lightning once. It came down the
chimney, went through a wall, and blew out his television. The number
of times I've heard about ball lighting coming down chimneys makes me
wonder if it is the bricks, particularly if the chimney has a lightning
rod with poor grounding, that help establish the dielectric field.

=====
Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=Sadomikeyism


		
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