3 Jan
2007
3 Jan
'07
5:48 p.m.
On Wed, 3 Jan 2007, Grant Stockly wrote:
This causes a stress crack in the Plexiglas, which
encourages some of the
electrons to exit. This tears a track in the Plexiglas, which permits more
of the electrons to come out. The electrons coming out tear/rip a path in
the Plexiglas just as lightning tears a path in the air leaving behind a
witness path, such as you see in the pictures. And like lightning the
process is accompanied by a loud bang and a flash. The Plexiglas continues
to 'sparkle' with bright blue 'sprits' running along the small branches
for
several minutes. It is truly a beautiful appearance.....at least in MY
opinion!
This plus the final pattern (which is obviously different every time) is
great at entertaining the multitude.
Here's something along those lines that yields a permanent piece of art:
(main page www.teslamania.com)
http://205.243.100.155/frames/interesting.html.
Basic process:
Irradiate a block of plexiglass with an electron beam from a particle
accelerator to build up a high static charge. Then carefully touch the
block with a grounded metal spike to cause a discharge, leaving feathery
branches of "frozen lightning" behind.
--
David Griffith
dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
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