Ball Lightning
...htning did not have the scientific training (Westrum 1). In the 1930’s J.W. Humphrey’s, an official of the U.S. Wheather Bureau, argues that ball lightning was used as an optical illusion (1). Accordingly to Stanley Singer, a lightning flash observed by a person out of the corner of their eye may appear in the form of a ball. The intensity of the lightning flash leaves a temporary blind spot on the retina and when the person moves their head, the ball of light they see moves with them, appearing to bounce of hover (1). However, with about 10,000 reported sightings of ball lightning in the past few decades, most scientists have agreed that it dos actually exist (Muir 1). So if ball lightning is real, what is it made of? There are countless theories on how ball lightning forms along with many more theories that have small variations to them. One of the main theories given by scientists is that ball lightning is made up of plasma trapped inside a magnetic field. Lightning usually has horizontal and sometimes vertical magnetic fields surrounding it (Mystery 1). When these horizontal and vertical fields are both present, they form a ball in which many scientists believe plasma could be held. Once this trapped plasma cools off, the electrons return to the atoms of the sir that they were taken from and the ball disappears (Mystery 1). The problem with the plasma explanation is that plasma always expands unless great efforts are taken to confine it and the force of the proposed magnetic fields that contain it would have to be enormous (Weiss 2). Another popular theory is that ball lightning consists of silicon that is vaporized into a fine dust after lightning strikes the soil (Muir 1). This theory, thought up by John Abrahamson, a chemical engineers of the University of Canterbury, New Zealand says that the silicon dust is then combined together by electrical charges into a ball of energy that would give off its own light. Though this theory sounds plausible, Weiss explains that is ball lightning whenever struck the soil, then it would not be so rarely seen (3). Most scientists agree that ball lightning can only be explained through a combination of theories. There are scientists, says Muir, who believe that “…the wisdom of more than tea fields of science will be needed to explain the bizarre effect” (1). There are of course multiple far out explanations that have been created to try to explain ball lightning. Since science can not yet fully explain this phenomenon, people have claims that ball lightning could be matter-antimatter annihilation, spontaneous bursts of nuclear fusion, pr perhaps even the dark matter of the universe (Weiss 1). People fear what they cannot explain and therefore will try to explain it by whatever way they possibly can. Scientists are now attempting to create their own ball lightning in the lab. Scientists believe that if they can make their own ball lightning and fully understan it, then it might be a way to contain high temperature reactions (Muir 2). Weiss says that one use or man-made balls of energy has already been though of by U.S. military scientists. Balls of a porous and lightweight material called aero gel could be used as a potential missile-decoys for war planes because they would emit missile-fooling infrared radiation when launched into the air (4). Scientists have also discovered that some cases involving ghosts and many cases describing UFO sightings could be explained by ball lightning. Physical chemist David Turner believes that ball lightning may be responsible for the unexplained movement of objects that some people think is ghosts (Muir 2). There is already evidence that ba...