RE: Ball lightning

To: tesla <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Subject: RE: Ball lightning
From: Steve Seitz <SSEITZ-at-midmark-dot-com>
Date: Thu, 07 Nov 1996 09:22:11 -0500



>    For example if an individual did water boiling experiments on
>a microwave oven with a non rotating tray. You would find that some
>parts of the oven heat and some don't. This happens to be one of the
>reasons for rotating trays in low wattage microwave ovens.
>

For a neat visual record of this effect conduct the following experiment (of 
course maybe not in your home microwave oven :)

Find a compact disc and something like a styrofoam cup to use as a standoff. 
 Remove any rotating trays from your microwave.  Place the cup upside down 
in the center and place the CD on top.  You can use any non-conductive item 
to hold the CD up.  Shut the door and run the microwave on HIGH for NO MORE 
THAN 3 seconds any longer will probably melt the CD and start a fire.  A 
fire will usually start within six seconds so BE CAREFUL.  If you do this 
with the lights out you will witness a corona discharge dancing around on 
the CD surface.  Remove the CD and examine the pattern left in the aluminum 
foil. COOL.  Of course, I can't be responsible for any damage but I have 
done this about a four or five times without any ill effects.  I was 
thinking that if you spaced several CD's apart with spacers and marked their 
orientation you could generate a 3D map of the lumping effect.

Be safe... but have fun!!!

Steve

[ Very interesting.  Now I know what to do with that AOL CD.  However, 
  let's not stray too far from TC's -- Chip]