“Lightning Made from Molasses”

When lightning travels through air, its fractal extensions and plasma-infused tendrils are only present for a fleeting fraction of a second. This makes studying those patterns a bit difficult, obviously.

You could use an expensive high-speed camera to capture the phenomenon at >7,000 frames per second, but there’s a much cheaper method: Pump 15,000 volts through plywood.

That’s what Melanie Hoff did above. Sure, it’s not a perfect recreation of a meteorological event, but the slow creep of fractal zaps makes their patterns, and how they are created, jump out. A lesson in math, or weather? You decide.

(via Open Culture)

165 Notes/ Hide

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    “Lightning Made from Molasses” | When lightning travels through air, its fractal extensions and plasma-infused tendrils...
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  11. littleolli reblogged this from jtotheizzoe and added:
    Awesome
  12. danind reblogged this from jtotheizzoe and added:
    Amazing
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    science. it works, bitches
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