3 ms·

We've called bullshit on this before, and little satisfactory response resulted. "But he's a professional, with published work!" is not sufficient; The effect

by mapt 9y ago

We've called bullshit on this before, and little satisfactory response resulted. "But he's a professional, with published work!" is not sufficient; The effect claimed is extraordinarily unlike our understanding of electrostatics, and no proof has been furnished.

bpicolo 9y ago
Without any validity claims there, we don't really seem to have that tremendous an understanding of these sorts of things. Isn't the exact mechanics of lightning formation still an unsolved problem? And then there's all sorts of other mysterious electrical phenomena like ball lightning > It is well understood that during a thunderstorm there is charge separation and aggregation in certain regions of the cloud; however the exact processes by which this occurs are not fully understood [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning#Necessary_conditions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning#Necessary_conditions
- ianai 9y ago
  But there is hope. The Langmuir guys seem to think it’ll get there https://www.abqjournal.com/814666/lab-sparks-advances-in-lightning-research.html https://www.abqjournal.com/814666/lab-sparks-advances-in-lig...
CamperBob2 9y ago
Note that Bill Beaty is not saying he witnessed the effect in person, or otherwise staking any claim to its validity. Multiple people at 3M claim they observed it in the 1980s, and Bill is just speculating on possible explanations. It's true that we understand electrostatics qua electrostatics very well. But it's not all that crazy or controversial to suggest that the intersection of electrostatics with other fields from material science to meteorology still holds some surprises. Apropos of oddities surrounding products from the 3M company, we thought we understood X-rays pretty well, too, and then someone discovered that they're emitted when you peel off some Scotch tape.
deleted 9y ago
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by mapt 9y ago

bpicolo 9y ago

Without any validity claims there, we don't really seem to have that tremendous an understanding of these sorts of things. Isn't the exact mechanics of lightning formation still an unsolved problem? And then there's all sorts of other mysterious electrical phenomena like ball lightning > It is well understood that during a thunderstorm there is charge separation and aggregation in certain regions of the cloud; however the exact processes by which this occurs are not fully understood [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning#Necessary_conditions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning#Necessary_conditions

ianai 9y ago
But there is hope. The Langmuir guys seem to think it’ll get there https://www.abqjournal.com/814666/lab-sparks-advances-in-lightning-research.html https://www.abqjournal.com/814666/lab-sparks-advances-in-lig...

CamperBob2 9y ago

Note that Bill Beaty is not saying he witnessed the effect in person, or otherwise staking any claim to its validity. Multiple people at 3M claim they observed it in the 1980s, and Bill is just speculating on possible explanations. It's true that we understand electrostatics qua electrostatics very well. But it's not all that crazy or controversial to suggest that the intersection of electrostatics with other fields from material science to meteorology still holds some surprises. Apropos of oddities surrounding products from the 3M company, we thought we understood X-rays pretty well, too, and then someone discovered that they're emitted when you peel off some Scotch tape.

deleted 9y ago

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