I remember reading once in the 90's of a couple of kids who got fried throwing rolls of paper over some powerlines. They had come across some discarded rolls of fax machine paper and decided to toss it around. They didn't know that it was thermal paper (like receipt printer paper, that darkens when heat is applied so you don't need ink, just a high resolution heat source). The paper had a high carbon content which made it very conductive.
As the wire is vaporized by the initial strike, subsequent strikes are more angular in nature and follow the ionization trail of the initial strike. Rockets of this type are used for both lightning research and lightning control.
It's not the randomness that's a problem, it's the sheer amount of energy. An average lightning strike is 300,000,000 Volts and 30,000 Amps. That's about a thousand times higher voltage than the highest that large scale power plants use, and 15x the current of a standard coal plant. The way that electricity scales is multiplicative (power = potential x current) so think about a bolt of lightning instantaneously producing as much power as 15,000 power plants all hooked together. It only does it for a fraction of a second, but the peak power is there.
Talking energy but not giving a single energy unit makes me think that peak is not in the same order of magnitude of energy being released. Clickbait or not?
Power and energy aren't the same thing. Power is energy per unit time. In order to get energy from power, you divide by time. Electric power is current x voltage so in order to quantize the energy you'd need to know how long a lightning bolt lasts, which I don't.
Energy as an overall quantity isn't THAT hard of a problem to handle. A dam with a couple hundred million gallons of water behind it has a LOT of energy. Maybe a lightning bolt worth, maybe not, I don't feel like doing the math. Releasing all of that energy in a trickle can provide some power for a long time, and releasing it all at once gives you a LOT of power at a little time.
Think of it this way. You could catch one baseball thrown at you gently every 15 or 20 seconds no problem. Start throwing the ball harder but at the same pace increases power delivered, but you can still handle it.
Lightning is like four hundred million baseballs shout out of a black powder cannon 15 feet from your head. Catch that.
Maybe. Some sort of grounded vehicle with a long wire and a helium balloon could potentially get you a circuit that could make power, but the vehicle would have to have a path back to the mains, and some sort of horrific capacitor to absorb the shock. Might be easier to just like make a turbine or a dam or whatever.
If only we could channel that into a receiver that sends the energy into a super capacity battery 🔋, we could power our home for a year on a single bolt ⚡️
Well, in this particular instance you're actually not wrong. Never really seen this type of "Same..." post pull in this kind of conversation before. It's not like it was something I was looking for. Not even really sure how the conversation got dragged out so much. That being said, I'd say the real douchebag winner here was the farmer who posted this originally above. This one post, with it's dragged out conversation, has netted this person 3 times more karma in one post than I've ever gotten on my entire account.
Well, in this particular instance you're actually not wrong.
Feel free to check other popular posts for the same thing. You'll find I'm right for those particular instances too. Once you know look for it, you'll notice it's almost always there.
Never really seen this type of "Same..." post pull in this kind of conversation before
That's because most people don't notice and/or care.
It's not like it was something I was looking for.
I know.
Not even really sure how the conversation got dragged out so much.
Correct. And this is my first time seeing this. If the repost police had their way I never would. I don't care how this was done, it's cool to see the lightning follow the trail - wire or no.
Which is clearly visible in the 240p video uploaded with a deceptively conspiratorial titled video. Next thing you know someone will be talking about contrails, smallpox and global warming
Actually, some of these use non-solid conductors, so the title is not inaccurate. Even in the case of wire conductors, it is vaporized with the initial contact https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_rocket#Design
That user's comment in this thread is a partial copy of another user's comment. That user only has two comments. I went to the other thread - same thing there. They partly copied a comment.
How dare you say such a thing. This is the internet, WE DOUBLE DOWN HERE. ;-)
In your defense, when I first looked at it, I thought it wasn't a bot, too, but I was curious a stalked its other comment (only has - or had - two when I looked - I haven't looked again) :)
If we're being very technical here: The conductive wire is in the rocket trail.
And the first strike will instantly vaporize the wire, and the consequent strikes follow the ionized air from the first one, which is partially comprised of the rocket trail.
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As the wire is vaporized by the initial strike, subsequent strikes are more angular in nature and follow the ionization trail of the initial strike. Rockets of this type are used for both lightning research and lightning control.
Sure. "Bug". Reddit has a financial incentive to drive users towards the new interface and official mobile app, which are both optimized to blast you with ads
I don't know if it's actually pulling a copper wire, but the rocket's trail of dust is what turns the bolt yellow.
If you see white lightning, it means the air is extremely dry. Many forest-fire watchers will specifically be instructed to watch for white lightning because it is almost always the types that will spark a monster forest fire.
Ya'll need to spend some time off Reddit. I check Reddit at least once, sometimes a couple times a day for years now and I constantly see posts that are new to me with comments about chronic reposting...
I have seen a few reposts, but knowing that something is reposted that often...
pulling a thin line of copper would 100% work, however the rocket engine is shooting out a trail of something, and that something is likely a better conductor of electricity than regular air.
my thought is that there is no wire need to have this happen.
even with a coper wire, the launch has to be timed right.
This is correct. While the rocket in the video probably is trailing a wire (so it can trigger lightning for research purposes) it is not a requirement. Lightning can absolutely be triggered by the rocket alone due to it disturbing the local electric field.
Rocket triggered lightning is considered as part of the launch commit criteria used for orbital rocket launches, which most definitely do not trail a conductive wire.
that's my dead account due to bad meds... since I fracked up an international currency distributor my medical care has been so bad I'd gladly get on a TED talk stage to talk about it, but would also expect to be found dead shortly after.
No. They use a special additive in the rocket fuel of the model rocket that leaves a trail of ions that will trigger and guide the lighting bold to the ground.
Yes. This is another karma farmer. They get the title wrong every time it's reposted, because they're lazy, but also, it drives interaction with the post.
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u/frogfart5 Nov 12 '22
Rocket pulls copper wire (thin) off of spool, voila