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did you ever see a plasma ball fly out of a power strip?

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CatalinaWOW:
Was there a burn spot where the ball landed in the middle of the room?  If not, it is possible that there was merely a flash of light out of the power strip and the rest was an after image resulting from the bright flash in your dark adapted eyes. 

There is a reason that ball lightning and other plasma ball phenomena are rarely if ever documented.

coppercone2:
nah it did not flash I just saw the ball, I am used to seeing them because its very similar (not identical) to arc welding splatter. It extinguished before it landed. The power strip is underneath the table mounted to the table leg and support bracket facing a eggshell texture medium blue wall, its not flashing or reflecting any light off that. The explosion was contained in a metal box so it cannot flash anyway.

looked like a dim little sun or something, I caught it when it was traveling over the table (not sure how it go there) and towards the middle of the living room before it dropped. I stood there for a while looking to see if I could see any smoke come from the hardwood floor near where the parabolicish trajectory endpoint projected landing zone but I dunno what the fuck it was, for all I know there is no 'core'. I watched some stuf about it now and people say the big ones end with a explosion and they disappear into thin air. but mine just dimmed out of existence.

I have a good idea of what bright lights to do eyes (again, lots of welding), its nothing like that related to bright flashes. Its a nice subdued day and I got up at like 2pm so I was nice and rested

the problem is the floor has not been refinished in like way too long and its a real shitty surface finish so evidence is gonna be hard to find

that guy should spark the stuff over a sheet of glass so he can find out what the lighting balls do after they burn up.


Nominal Animal:
True ball lightning is real but rare, and has been demonstrated in laboratory considitions since 2004 at least.

Theory I think is most plausible is that the plasma forms some kind of structure that holds it together; it does not necessarily have any solid parts at all.  Something similar to the Leidenfrost effect, where a vapor layer separates a liquid and a solid, allowing one to e.g. dip a (moist) bare hand in molten lead (say 725 K) for a fraction of a second without getting burned (as shown on e.g. Mythbusters).

In particular, R Morrow 2018 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 51 125205 describes the separation as caused by positive ions driven away, and negative ions into the "ball" as the separation mechanism, and the light as mainly caused by the negative ions burning.  Such structures can last ten seconds, while the amount of material involved is neglible, definitely less than typical welding spatter.  (I'm a horrible welder, though.)

That model is interesting because it also kinda-sorta explains the stories of ball lightning after lightning has hit a chimney, because carbon soot and silica is involved (carbon soot from burning, and silica in the rocks/bricks) – carbon (soot) seems to be a necessary ingredient, and the two used in the laboratory production of ball lightning.  The thunderstorm itself provides suitable atmospheric conditions for ionization in general. Prior to widespread introduction of lightning rods, lightning would have struck chimneys much more than they do nowadays.  At least all the historical reports of ball lightning I've heard in Finland, have involved lightning hitting a chimney (or very similar conditions).

That said, not all reports of ball lightning are ball lightning, but more biophysical effects from bright flashes ("afterimages").  Also, when people experience an adrenaline surge, their perception of time can be very distorted: an event that takes a fraction of a second, can feel like several seconds.  (I've had that happen to me once, with a wound that cut open a surface blood vessel requiring stitches.  I vividly recall calmly examining the first droplet of blood flying in a beautiful ballistic arc, as if in slow motion, before everything sped back up to normal speed.)

SilverSolder:

--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on March 15, 2021, 11:17:49 am ---[...]  At least all the historical reports of ball lightning I've heard in Finland, have involved lightning hitting a chimney [...]

--- End quote ---

If you read TinTin as a kid,  you know that ball lighning is real and comes in through chimneys, LOL!  :D

Nominal Animal:

--- Quote from: SilverSolder on March 15, 2021, 12:14:17 pm ---
--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on March 15, 2021, 11:17:49 am ---[...]  At least all the historical reports of ball lightning I've heard in Finland, have involved lightning hitting a chimney [...]

--- End quote ---
If you read TinTin as a kid,  you know that ball lighning is real and comes in through chimneys, LOL!  :D

--- End quote ---
Ha!

But no, Hergé just used the existing tales in his story. For example, "Globe of Fire Descending into a Room" in "The Aerial World," by Dr. G. Hartwig, London, 1886. P. 267. Library Call Number QC863.4 H33 1886. Image ID: libr0524, Treasures of the NOAA Library Collection:


Another common thing is passing or appearing through a window (silica glass).  The interesting thing is how silicon and carbon form nanostructures whose properties can be modified by doping with iron, calcium, and oxygen.  Some researchers have actually captured the spectrum of a suspected ball lightning in nature (Jianyong Cen, Ping Yuan, and Simin Xue, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 035001 – Published 17 January 2014).

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