Harnessing Power/Electricity from Ball Lightning |
New Technologies - Harnessing Electrical Power from Ball LightningBall lightning is an odd phenomenon that can occur during lightning storms. It is so rare and brief an occurance that scientists have been unable to determine the exact cause of it untill just a few years ago. I recently wondered if anyone had considered harenssing power from these floating sparks of plasma. Researchers have spent decades trying to harness elctricity from lightning with no success. A quick Google for Ball lightning turned up quite a lot of information. This clip from an article on ball lightning quotes a New Zealand scientists explanation of how it occurs. The first is regular lightning. Second, the lightning must hit a structure such as a building, soil, or a tree. The struck object must have a metallic or an oxide component. Now I wonder what would happen if during a thunderstorm one flew a kite that was actually a small helium balloon coated with iron particles or a ceramic dust, or chunks of ceramics or iron. Would it cause a Ball Lightning display along with the exploding helium ? Would it be like throwing iron filings on a flame ? Could you ignite it with a laser instead of waiting for a storm ? Scientists have been studying this phenomenon and trying to replicate it for years. One of the most recent successes at creating ball lightning in the lab was accomplished at Tel Aviv university in Israel by researchers Eli Ferby and Vladimir Dikhtyar. Microwaves produced from the magnetron of a common 600 watt microwave oven, were focused into a space of a single cubic centimetre and injected through a rod into a substrate made from a variety of ceramic materials, creating a hot spot that becomes a floating molten ball as the rod is removed. So harenssing power from lightning balls has not only been considered, it has been recreated in the lab and suggested in the article on PhysicsWeb that lab-generated fireballs could be used in practical applications such as coating, deposition, combustion and energy production. I hav'nt read about any possible military applications though i assume those experiments are well under way, and there may be some super top secret technologies in the works. |
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