Re: lightning, Xrays

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>

Of course, the interesting thing about the report in Science is that they
are observing energetic radiation (their detector is none too good at
discriminating between gamma and Xrays, or, for that matter between a bunch
of low energy vs one high energy particle/photon) where folks thought there
would be none (just because it's in atmospheric pressure, and the di/dt is
slow..)

They are seeing many 10's of MeV of energy (not necessarily a 10 MeV
photon/particle) dumped into their scintillator in connection with the early
part of the lightning flash.

As Robert points out, probably not much of a hazard from a TC, but very
interesting, nonetheless...


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2003 11:17 AM
Subject: Re: lightning, Xrays


 > Original poster: "robert & june heidlebaugh by way of Terry Fritz
<teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <rheidlebaugh-at-desertgate-dot-com>
 >
 > Davep: While the voltage is high enough to produce x-ray the level is to
low
 > to detect. However the x-ray enission of a linier accelerator is dangerous
 > even though the voltage is less than a TC. The differance is the speed of
 > the discharge or total energy involved not just the voltage of the spark.
I
 > have generated soft X-ray with 20 Kv from a Magnesium target in a vacuum,
 > but again that is in a vacuum not in air. The total energy of a TC is low
so
 > the X-ray emission is below normal detection levels. I am not saying it
 > could  not exist  if we could detect such low levels. Dangerous, not
likely.
 >        Robert  H
 > --
 >
 >
 >  > From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
 >  > Date: Sat, 01 Mar 2003 19:03:10 -0700
 >  > To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
 >  > Subject: Re: lightning, Xrays
 >  > Resent-From: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
 >  > Resent-Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2003 20:47:09 -0700
 >  >
 >  > Original poster: "davep by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>"
 >  > <davep-at-quik-dot-com>
 >  >
 >  >
 >  >> Is it an efield effect?
 >  >> Well, lightning strikes occur in a field around 10-20 kV/meter, a lot
less
 >  >> than that around a TC, which is probably more like 100 kV/meter), but
maybe
 >  >> there is a high field in the immediate vicinity of the stroke or
leader..
 >  >
 >  >> While it's not directly TC related, I wonders if one were to set up a
 >  >> "exploding wire" type experiment at 50-100 kJ/meter kinds of energies
with
 >  >> microsecond scale discharges, whether you'd be able to detect
anything..
 >  > That's What i recall hearing discussed.
 >  >
 >  > Real Plasma physicists.
 >  > Some species of high power exploding wire and the
 >  > caution to:
 >  > Prepare for GAMMAs
 >  > I UTTERLY disrecall the details...
 >  >
 >  > best
 >  > dwp
 >  >
 >  > ...the net of a million lies...
 >  > Vernor Vinge
 >  > There are Many Web Sites which Say Many Things.
 >  > -me
 >  >
 >  >
 >  >
 >  >
 >
 >