“Sacred” 1.7 Million Volt Light Of The Gods Creates Miracles

| January 26, 2016 | New Science | No Comments

MessageToEagle.com    Today, Bert Hickman’s  cool experiment enables Zeus-like miracles!

For the ancient Greeks, the occurrence of lightning mean that Zeus, lord of heaven, was often very angry and upset. God used to throw jagged, terrifying bolts of lightning, like spears of fire. This was for the ancients, a “sacred light”.

Captured Lightning: fractal-like Lichtenberg figures frozen in acrylic blocks by Bert Hickman
Captured Lightning: fractal-like Lichtenberg figures frozen in acrylic blocks by Bert Hickman

In his lab near Chicago, Illinois, a retired electrical engineer, Bert Hickman, uses a particle accelerator acrylic plastic to “grab and keep the wrath of Zeus”. In this way, he continues the ancient knowledge, once only confined to realms of the gods.

“Lichtenberg Figures are branching, tree-like patterns that are sometimes formed on the surface or within the interior of insulating materials by high voltage electrical discharges.

A lightning flash has been frozen in time, and Bert Hickman calls it "Captured Lightning" Credits: B. Hickman
A lightning flash has been frozen in time, and Bert Hickman calls it “Captured Lightning” Credits: B. Hickman

The first Lichtenberg Figures were two-dimensional patterns formed in dust on charged insulating plates…”

“The principles involved in the formation of these early figures are also fundamental to the operation of modern copy machines and laser printers.

“Using modern materials and powerful particle accelerators, beautiful 3-D Lichtenberg Figures can now be created inside clear acrylic, creating lightning sculptures,” explained Mr. Hickman.

This Lichtenberg figure or 'electrical tree' was formed inside a 1.5" cube of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) using a 3 MeV electron accelerator. Bert Hickman, Stoneridge Engineering
This Lichtenberg figure or ‘electrical tree’ was formed inside a 1.5″ cube of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) using a 3 MeV electron accelerator. Bert Hickman, Stoneridge Engineering

Lichtenberg figures display branching patterns which look similar at various scales of magnification.

This self-similar property suggests that Lichtenberg figures might be mathematically described through a branch of mathematics called Fractal Geometry, since self similarity is one key property of fractals.

Important is that fractal objects do not have integral (2D or 3D) dimensions, but instead have fractional dimensions.

Making “Captured Lightning” (Million-volt Sculptures)

Marvellous figures, a product of electrical discharge that forms when more than 1.7 million volts are released from plastic blocks of various sizes.

The experiment was first conducted by a German scientist Georg C. Lichtenberg in the late 18th century, using powdered sulfur.

First version was published on March 26, 2012

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