The squirrel, the fireball, and the explosion

Try searching on "ball lightening". Look at things like

------------- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

Sounds like Jacobs Ladder effect, or Lenz' law. Either way, the plasma is pushed down line until it reaches something tasty and the conditions change (boom).

Tim

-- Deep Fryer: a very philosophical monk. Website:

The fireball sounds like ball lightning. Do a bit of background reading and your own comprehesion problem might be marginally less pressing.

The squirrel seems to have been a hypothetical creature, invented by the power company to explain the fireball, which presumably measn that they don't know anything more about ball lightning than you do.

------------- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

Nonsense. Everytime you see ball lighting, a squirrel soul is being propelled toward heaven.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it\'s the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

From ball lightning to squirrel by Omnipelagos,

s

Mike :-)

BS exhibiting his customary comprehension problem... What has ball lightening to do with the OP's question? The OP was looking for a theory which would encompass the presence of a squirrel having some calculable effect on the observed phenomenon and thereby accounting to some extent (as yet undetermined) upon it. Ball lightening of itself has nothing to do with squirrels.

--

"What is now proved was once only imagin\'d" - William Blake

Poppycock. You all missed the symbolism.

The wire is the timeline of man. The moving ball of fire is the unprecedented acceleration of entropy, with the resulting explosion the completion of all order to disorder.

The squirrel was actually a mouse which, if you have not yet realized, is in control of everything.

Moral of the story: always carry a towel.

That doesn't disprove Sphero's theory, it only explains why ball lightning is rare. There must be a few worthy squirrel souls, which are the ones that lead to ball lightning.

--
Good day!

________________________________________
Christopher R. Carlen
Principal Laser&Electronics Technologist
Sandia National Laboratories CA USA
crcarleRemoveThis@BOGUSsandia.gov
NOTE, delete texts: "RemoveThis" and
"BOGUS" from email address to reply.

When a squirrel is on fire it can only run so fast, especially on a wire.

cheers, Jamie

Background reading on the web about ball lightning will primarily turn up total BS. Ball lightning, a metastable plasma ball (as it is known to the physics community) very very rarely produced by regular lightning only, cannot possibly attach to a conductor without immediately dissipating.

Squirrels and other rodents do a lot of damage to outdoor wiring, invariably leaving behind clear evidence in the form of chewed insulation. I have personally seen massive squirrel damage to medium voltage cables cause an arc fault, and I doubt if you can find an experienced utility lineman anywhere squirrels live who cannot say the same. This is why Spehro's theory about squirrel souls going to heaven in ball lightning must be wrong; squirrels are evil and their souls go straight to hell when they fry on power lines.

There is no need to hypothesize about rarer than hens teeth ball lightning when an ordinary arc fault fits the evidence so much better.

We no longer put up Christmas lights on the Spruce trees on the north side of our house. As soon as they are installed and illuminated, the squirrels begin chewing off the bulbs thinking they are nuts to be buried. These are

110 V large parallerl wired bulbs. In looking at the remnant wires, there are many places where both wires have been gnawed simulataneously. Never a dead squirrel. And we no longer put up lights for their entertainment.

I played with a guy on a rec sport team once who worked for the local power company doing the really high voltage lines. He said no one ever retired from his department. He went on to describe how when you get "bit", you develop a lot of internal pressure from "steam" (his words) which causes you to pop like an over cooked hot dog.

Theory: Squirrel bridged the wires becoming a conductor (Squirrel Flambe) and created a conductive ionized path (arc) that walked down the wire.

Blakely

And when you hear a bell, they get their wings?

Thanks, Rich

Arcs are, indeed, exceedingly weird. I was once working with a guy who was trying to teach me TIG (and/or MIG) welding - that's "Tungsten inert gas", or "heliarc," and "Metal inert gas", where the electrode and filler are the same piece of metal. I never did see "an arc", according to what I thought "an arc" should look like. It was like a sort of plasma dome over the hot spot. I was looking for something that looked like your traditional image of lightning, or that arc you drew to the scope probe when you wanted to see what the waveform at the horizontal deflection plate cap looked like. But the welding arc wasn't like that at all. It was just kinda sorta, like I said, a dome-shaped ball of plasma. Not like a Jacob's ladder arc, either.

But very weird. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find out that ball lightning can do weird things.

Thanks! Rich

We have 'em here in my neighborhood. Some neighbors have them in their attics :-(

My bug guy sealed all possible paths and has some special traps all around the perimeter, so I have not been bothered... knock on wood ;-)

MIT Mascot and then there's the Motto: Save a tree, eat a beaver ;-)

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.

We do have squirrels in the garden, and the bird feeder evolved a bit before it became squirrel proof.

We've got no evidence of squirrel infestation in the attic - plenty of evidence of steenmarten infestation (1) but nothing to indicate the squirrels had ever made ith through the thatch.

---------- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

1) Including about half a bucket of steenmarten (Dutch pine-marten) shit that I collected from the top of the ceiling of my study ....

--
No, you hear that when they take their place on the head of a pin.

Most rodents are evil, even squirrels, despite their cute antics and bushy tails they are close cousins to rats.

Excepting, of course, the noble and industrious beaver.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it\'s the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

Yeah, you're right, Rich. I had a crack at TIG a while ago and there's no "arc" as in the conventional sense. It looks for all the world like the fine, and quite sharp cone you get with gas welding - and I guess maybe it is plasma. By twiddling a knob on the welder - god knows what it controlled - you could completely change the profile of the finished fillet, too. Weird! I'll bet the switchers in those things work overtime, too. They must take a lot of punishment. :-/

--

"What is now proved was once only imagin\'d" - William Blake

For me, that OA cone was a lot easier to "focus" than the arc. Luckily, my test piece didn't have to pass any kind of production inspection. :-)

Well, Ignoramus something-or-other has just recently posted a new post where he announces his success at building that AC adapter on his $9.95 TIG unit - I should go back and review the thread, and should probably congratulate him, but I'm holding back on that until I see a weld that passes ISO. ;-P

Cheers! Rich