Conference hydra::dejavu

    Re .0 (Carla):
    
    Insufficient data.  Could've been that she had more conductive shoes
    on than others (or was moister, or both), this making something
    like a closer ground connection.              
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    Moister, sweatier, cleaner skin, more conductive (or more capacitive
    because thinner) footwear, etc.
    
    No great mystery here... yet.
    
    	-Bill

    Thanks for the info/input... I don't think she was any sweatier,
    or moister than anyone else there?? don't know, I can say her hands
    were ice cold (it was a cool day, and the museum was cool) BUT,
    it had been raining when we entered, however we were at the RAMSES
    exhibit about an hour or so before we went to look at other exhibits.
    
    Her shoes, she had on a pair of "suede-type" flats with "plastic-
    type" heels and "alleged leather look" soles.
    
    Mystery or not, it was most interesting to watch ... it was almost
    beautiful (the designs the electricity made) in a rather bizarre
    fashion.
    
    Thanks again...
    
    Carla
    

In case anyone is interested, they sell a smaller version of the glass ball
under the name "eye of the storm" for around $150-$200.  It's usually
available in electronic novelty stores and catalogs, as well as the Museum
of Science gift shop!  They're great, and it doesn't seem to matter what type 
of shoe you wear to have those effects.

As to how it works. . .  Don't forget we're bioelectric, I've touched
the sphere with a coin at the tip of my finger for a "strong reaction," 
but I HAVEN'T tried to touch one of those with a battery, loop of wire,
superconductor, etc.  

They can be a lot of fun to experiment with, for childern and adults alike.

    I've seen them for as low as $110, and suspect if you wait for an
    sale you might get them for a lot less.
    
    They work by a form of high-frequency electric discharge into a
    mixture of low pressure gases.  The result is very complex interation
    of forces which is likely to be rather sensitive to very small
    external influences.  I dobut if the bodies intrinsic electric
    field has much of an influence though.  It is so much smaller
    than induced fields from static charges picked up by friction
    and your body acting as an "antenna" picking up ambiant radio
    frequencies and 60Hz signals.  The amount of sweat in the
    skin needed to modify these effect is very small, and it is not
    clear whether more or less is "better" (it probably varies up
    and down and depends on the other factors in addition).  A person's
    exact size, the shape of their fingers, when the last cut their
    fingernails, and much else are all likely to have an unpredictable
    effect on these plasma-discharge spheres.
    
    So, no significance can be attached to differences for different
    people, but they *are* fun.
    
    					Topher

    re: last couple
    
         I just paid a visit to the Price Club today and they happened
    to have one of these eye-of-the-storm type balls...I didn't look
    very closely at it to see more but I did notice the price at, I
    believe, $79.
    
    Frederick
    

    A conventional possibility.  If the display is the one I am thinking
    of, it is noticably elongated, perhaps 3 ft by 1ft?  IF Kristina
    was standing nearest one end, she would tend to draw the discharge
    preferentially from that end.  Also, if she was the shortest present
    her impedance (used in its technical sense) to ground could well
    have been less than for an adult/older child.
    
    If memory serves, the discharge appears to "orignate" from one end,
    leaving the other end dark if the discharge is "detoured" to a side
    wall.  It is a fascinating, and beautiful display.
    
    thanks
    dave pierson

I have a question and I guess this is an okay place to put it.  

I heard something interesting on the radio today and would like to solicit an
explanation from some of you electric types.

Somewhere in California some children in an open area were struck by 
lightning, none fatally but serious enough.  The strange part is that it 
was (according to witnesses and the ABC radio story) a bolt of lightning - 
but there was no rain and *no* clouds.  How can that be???

Terry

    Re .8 (Terry):
    
    That's unusual, but not impossible.  If somehow a static electric
    difference built up sufficient so that a lightning bolt [which is
    a great big spark] could bridge the gap, that would explain it.
    It might also be that if the air was sufficiently hazy, a
    lighter-colored cloud might not have been visible.
    
    In short, data too scanty to form a definite opinion, but it's not
    out of the question.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

RE: .8 (Terry) supplementing .9 (Steve)
    
    Although it is *very* rare and not well understood occasionally
    lighting move horizontally for dozens of miles (from a storm over
    the horizon) before striking the Earth.  I'm not sure how well
    established this phenomena is, but I do know that it is taken seriously
    by at least some people who study lightning.
    
    There are also theories -- and these are definitely *not* well
    accepted, but are not outright rejected either -- which claim that
    quite large electric charges can build up occasionally in earth
    faults by piezoelectric action.  Conceivably this could have been
    such a discharge.  I doubt if anyone close to where a lightning
    bolt struck would be able to see much more than a flash of light,
    i.e., they wouldn't have any idea of the direction it came from.
    
    					Topher

    Re .10 (Topher):
    
    >......................I doubt if anyone close to where a lightning
    >bolt struck would be able to see much more than a flash of light,
    >i.e., they wouldn't have any idea of the direction it came from.
                       
    Actually, it's worse than _that_.  Most people are unaware that
    the initial current surge in a lightning bolt is up, not down. 
    And that further, once the ionized path is established, there's
    an oscillating current as the initial flow of electrons overshoots
    straight balance (a quickly damped oscillation to be sure, but an
    oscillation nonetheless).
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

Thanks!  I knew I could count on the 'Kallis-Cooper' ghostbuster squad to 
help me out.  No stone is left unturned...

Much appreciated.

Terry

re: .8 (me)

	In .8 I mentioned some kids struck by lightning without any
	clouds around.  Well, while on vacation in Florida last week
	I heard about two guys walking down the beach - the same thing
	happened to them.  The bolt struck one then passed along to the
	other.  No clouds in sight???  For a rare event, that's twice
	in the course of a couple weeks.  (One was left in critical
	condition, the other experienced minor injuries).

	Terry