Originally posted by: JLee
Originally posted by: Cogman
there are multiple reasons, some stated here. For one, how do you charge something in a 1/1000 of a second without melting/blowing something up? How do you deal with the completely random voltages? and how do you keep the bolt fromt traveling so far down the line then jumping out or arching over it?
You have to remember that we essentially force electricity into the things we want to charge, lightning has enough energy that it can go wherever it pleases (even skipping over the charging box.
Not only that, but you also have to predict where a lightning storm will be, In my home town we sometimes go entire summers without lightning storms, that system would fail completely in that circumstance.
As for the tornado Idea. Lol, where the publishers of scientific America drunk when they published that article? Everyone say it with me "There is no free lunch, there is no free lunch. Energy in == energy out. The law of conservation of Energy/matter" unless his perpetual tornado is powered by the sun, the power required to start the thing would be exactly the same as the power an ideal turbine would get out of it (Yes, the tornado will slowdown if you put a turbine in it).
Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value.
- Editorial in the Boston Post (1865)
Funny how technology changes.
I wouldn't be surprised if it's feasible sometime down the line.
Funny how it hasn't changed that newspaper writers and most magazine writers aren't well grounded in scientific knowledge, as well as a very large portion of the general public. There is no free lunch. But, there are always people convinced that it's simply because we don't have the technology yet. And, when someone claims to have developed a technology that gets a free lunch, there are plenty of idiots willing to invest their money into it. Were that little quote from 1865 written by someone who understood the laws of science, it would read as "well informed people know that at the present time, we don't have the technology to tansmit the voice over wires." If the summarization of the story in Popular Science is true, it just further reinforces my belief that the magazine has gone to hell.
As far as harnessing lightning goes, why take the view that we have to wait for enormous potentials to build up, that we have no way of effectively controlling? Sending up little model rockets with a wire or with a conductive exhaust is so... 70's. Also, why so uncreative? Everyone is acting as if there's only 1 possibility with storm clouds - a big lightning bolt. Benjamin "Lucky" Franklin flew a kite in a lightning storm - he drew sparks to his knuckles from a key on the string. Helllooooo! Seems that when it's not a huge lightning strike, the current just might be manageable? I can hook up a Van de Graaff generator (the big shiny ball that if you put your hand on, will make your hair stand up. If it's already on, before your hand is there, you get big 8"-10" sparks) and make great big sparks - think of these as lightning. But, I can just as easily discharge it continuously through a wire, creating a measurable current in that wire (this is how I fine tune my Van de Graaff.) My "magic trick" that I show students is that I can put my hand right up to the Van de Graaff without a spark hitting me, but they can't. The trick is that I have a pin in my hand; by approaching it slowly enough, I can draw a current from the VdG that discharges it - but not a sudden discharge as in an 8" spark.
Perhaps it could be possible to start drawing a current from the cloud before it generates a really high potential that results in lightning strikes? And, perhaps we can move away from 1970's technology (rockets with wire) to something perhaps a little more advanced, say, laser pulses to create an ion channel?
Scholar.google.com is your friend if you want to read more recent research.
A possible way to trigger lightning using a laser
D. Wanga, T. Ushioa, Z. -I. Kawasakia, K. Matsuuraa, Y. Shimadab, S. Uchidab, C. Yamanakab, Y. Izawac, Y. Sonoid and N. Simokurad
Abstract
To study the possibility of triggering lightning with a laser plasma, laboratory laser-induced discharge experiments have been carried out and the following results were obtained. Both long straight and zigzag laser induced discharges between rod-rod electrodes were realized and the effective guiding effect of laser channels for electrical discharges was confirmed...
We propose to use the local electric field near the top of a grounded tower as the necessary field for a laser-produced channel to trigger an upward leader and have proved that this is feasible.
Energy Analysis of Solar vs Laser Lightning
N. KHAN, Z. SALEEM, A.WAHID AND N. ABAS
The available ultrashort pulsed lasers are reviewed and the prospects of Attosecond to zeptosecond pulse generation barriers are discussed to investigate the potential solutions. Natural and rocket or laser triggered lightning are reviewed regarding pulse durations, inter-pulse periods, frequency of occurrence and number of pulses per flash in the light of available data. Laser pulses and lightning flashes of energy are evaluated critically in the more familiar kWh units and the prospects of causing very high power or energy pulsed events in highly repetitive (continuous) manner is analysed to develop sustainable ultimate energy sources.
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