FRIDAY SURPRISE: Captured Lightning

Friday, September 22, 2006 Filed in: Technology, Things I like, Friday Surprise!
In the late 1700s, Professor Georg Christoph Lichtenberg noticed some interesting patterns forming on the dusty surface of a charged plate. He showed the unusual works of natural art to his students and peers, and through time they have become known as Lichtenberg Patterns. The same patterns can sometimes be seen on the skin of people who have been struck by lightning.

Formed as the result of high voltage discharges on, or within, insulating materials, Lichtenberg Patterns can today be captured permanently by discharging the output of a linear accelerator into a Lucite block. The resulting three dimensional fern-like patterns are strangely fascinating!

This website shows and explains the process. Very cool!

Blue2x

And you thought science was boring!

-=[ Grant ]=-
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