New Explanation for Ball Lightning

[Kenny Drake]

I noticed this interesting article while doing my daily browsing, and I thought I would share it:

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/25166/
Technology Review by MIT

Nothing exciting at all, apparently ball lightning is nothing more than a figment of our imaginations.

 

[Steve Elzinga]

Many years ago lightning struck three large hemlock trees outside our cabin in the woods. A large glowing orange ball formed inside the cabin on the second floor and drifted down the stairs and into the middle of the room before dissipating. There was someone sleeping on a bunk next to the stairs and they woke up thinking someone had kicked them in the head. He had a partial dental plate that he immediately spit out and he stated he had a feeling and taste in his mouth like he had put a nine volt battery in it. The entire interior of the cabin reflected the orange light and it looked like something out of a Star Trek movie. This was witnessed by five people and they all saw the same thing. I think they need to revisit their research.

 

[JSchumacher]

Interesting theory, but there are several pictures and videos out there now of this phenomenon. Could be doctored, yes, but with so many eye witness reports, I think logically you can't assume they all are doctored and that real accounts are just hallucinations.
In fact my dad used to do weather photography. He had a personal experience with it and even got pictures. They are terribly over exposed due to the brightness, and it looks more like a spiny amoeba, but I believe to they naked eye it could appear as a sphere, like it did to him.
I'm not discounting the magnetic affects they discuss in the article, only saying that ball lightning cannot solely be attributed to it.
Just my 2 pennies of course!

 

[Jeff Wright]

This may be of interest

Tempest in a teacup: Physicists make breakthrough in creating turbulence

Turbulence is all around us. It's in the swirl of coffee and milk in a latte, unfurling along the wings of airplanes and the sides of cars, churning the blood in your heart after the valve snaps closed. Yet we still don't fully grasp all of its rules.

phys.org

A group of University of Chicago scientists, however, have pioneered a way to create contained turbulence in a tank of water. They use a ring of jets to blow loops until an isolated "ball" of turbulence forms and lingers.

My guess is that ball lightning is such that a regular stroke has to hit such-and-such a substance just so----to produce such an effect.

 

[Jeff Wright]

Some discussion at a responsible skeptic site (the old BAD ASTRONOMY forum of Plait)

Ball lightning - Cosmoquest Forum

How plausible is the meme of ball lightning? Is it pseudoscience?

forum.cosmoquest.org