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From: rmarkd@uclink2.berkeley.edu (Mark Rajesh Das)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Re: Homebrew Ball Lightning???
Date: 1 Aug 1996 21:30:53 GMT
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jason cooper (jcooper@acs6.acs.ucalgary.ca) wrote:
: here's the wierd part.  I remember vividly seeing what I can only
: describe as being what I think ball lightning would look like (a
: moving, glowing spot in the air).  It moved from the motor, and
: up to a nearby window, across the room, about 10 feet away.
: There's still a mark on the window where it hit (a brownish spot
: in the glass).

: Now, it was *just* an AC motor, and there's an old (cast-iron,
: water or steam heated) radiator not 4 feet from where the motor
: was.  Could I have seen ball lightning (or more to the point,
: what's the chance that I saw ball lightning)?  If not, what could
: it have been?  I'm *certain* that I wasn't just imagining things.

I'm no expert, but I seem to remember that scientists have found
semi-reliable experiments making ball lightning -- small ones (1cm in
diameter) There are a few sorta-famous experiments where ball
lightning was an unexpected by-product ( or it seemed like it was
ball lightning) but they could never repeat it.

 I seem to remember an experiment where the result was a metal plate
with small circles in it -- supposedly due to ball lightning. Then
again, it was on TV, so I can't be sure to the extent of the thruthfulness.

As for what else it could be, it could have very hot foreign object that
came out from the motor, it could have been St. Elmo's (though you said
it was in the air, so that's not the case)

do you remember how big it was and other details? ( color, how it
floated, smells, sounds,etc)         

: Thanks! :)
 ain't no thing.
: --
: -----------------------------------------------------------------
:                 Everyone can be taught to sculpt;
:          Michelangelo would have had to be taught not to.

: Jason Cooper                              jcooper@acs.ucalgary.ca

"TM"