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It is generally accepted that at present there is no explanation of the nature of ball lightning, although more than half a thousand different theories and several thousand scientific publications are known. There are many books that have been published since the middle of the 19th century, which describe in detail the observed characteristics of ball lightning and various mysterious and intriguing features in their behavior indoors and in the earth's atmosphere. A brief description of some of them is given on the page Ball Lightning. There, in the Proposed scientific explanations section, a description of some theories concerning the nature of ball lightning is given. There are several books directly devoted to the ball lightning nature[1], [2],where various models of ball lightning are presented. However, without delving into the essence of these theories and hypotheses, it can be argued that the behavior of the models presented does not correspond to the behavior of natural ball lightning. Here are just three anomalous behaviors that none of the known theories can explain. This is the ability of ball lightning to penetrate into rooms through window panes without damaging them.[3] It is known that no particles, even the smallest ones in the form of electrons, can penetrate glass. What then does ball lightning consist of? It is difficult to imagine that any particles are absent in ball lightning. This property of ball lightning when falling from the sky does not hit the ground but stops a few meters from the surface of the earth..[4] It is hard to imagine that ball lightning is equipped with a device that allows measuring the distance to the earth's surface and means that ensures their deceleration. This is the ability of ball lightning to accompany an airliner and locates on the leading edge of the wing, despite the fact that it is blown away by wind, the speed of which exceeds the speed of a very strong hurricane.[5], [6], [7], The enumeration of the extraordinary properties of ball lightning can go on and on, but the information given is enough to make sure that none of the known theories can explain at least one of these properties, not to mention their simultaneous explanation. Such unusual, mysterious properties of ball lightning have a great advantage. They allow one to easily reject various theories and hypotheses about the nature of ball lightning because the objects proposed as ball lightning do not have the same abnormal properties that natural ball lightning has. On the other hand, there are good reasons to assert that an object is ball lightning if it simultaneously possesses the specified set of anomalous properties. It turns out that such an object exists and has been studied since 2003. Previously, no one suspected the existence of such items. Therefore, it could not be studied either theoretically or experimentally. Of course, this object has no name. At present, the properties of this object have been studied in detail. More than three dozen articles have been published in leading international journals such as Physics Letters A, Optics Communications, Annals of Physics, Physical Review A, Optik, Doklady Physics, Physica Scripta, European Physical Journal D. All journals are indexed by Scopus and Web of Science. It is shown that natural ball lightning and this object have the same anomalous properties and behavior in the earth's atmosphere. This applies not only to the above three features of the behavior of ball lightning but also to all other more than two dozen of its features. It can be argued that this object is a correct model of ball lightning. The physical nature of this object is so simple that its explanation takes only one paragraph. The object looks like a soap bubble. Unlike a soap bubble, the shell of this object consists of a thin spherical layer of strongly compressed air where conventional intense white light is circulating in all possible directions. The light compresses the air to minimize the total energy of the light and compressed air. The refractive index of the compressed air is greater than that of the surrounding air. In this case, the shell is a spherical lightguide that prevents radiation of light in free space. Thus, this object is a peculiar symbiosis of two elements. These are the air and light only. Compressed air ensures the existence of the circulating light, and the circulating light ensures the existence of the compressed air. Compared to the energy density of light propagating in a straight line, the energy density of the circulating light increases by a factor of billions, since the volume occupied by light decreases in proportion to the number of turns that the circulating light makes when it occurs. As a result, the optically induced forces arising from the interaction of such light with the inhomogeneous surrounding air increase by a factor of billions. The magnitude of these forces is proportional to the product of the energy of the circulating light and the gradient of the refractive index of the air in which the light bubble is located. In many cases, the magnitude of these forces exceeds the magnitude of other known forces, such as gravity, Archimedean force, and air resistance force when a light bubble moves. We can say that the bubble of light is located in another world, where another additional type of force is acting, which is responsible for the anomalous behavior of the light bubble in the ordinary world. As a result, the bubble of light is a very sensitive device that reacts to the slightest change in the air density in the earth's atmosphere and moves in the direction where the air density is higher. It is shown that this property is responsible for all the mysteries, paradoxes, and known anomalies in the behavior of natural ball lightning in the Earth's atmosphere. The glow of ball lightning is explained by not the light radiated by a matter heated at great temperature but the fact that the circulating light is gradually scattered due to known phenomena of Rayleigh scattering. Similarly, sunlight is scattered in the earth's atmosphere. This explains the blue color of the sky and orange color of the Sun near horizon. To distinguish reference to natural ball lightning from reference to its optical model, we will refer to it as bubble of light, or circulating light. Thus, the behaviour of bubble of light obeys the simplest rule. It tends to move in the direction of decreasing the air temperature. However, in some cases, when a change in the air pressure is greater than the air temperature, the bubble of light is moving in the direction of an increasing the air pressure. This situation occurs when the bubble of light accompanies a flying aircraft that disturbs the uniform distribution of the air density in such a way that the maximum air density is at the leading edge of the fuselage or wings of the aircraft. The bubble of light is located at this maximum. The refractive index decreases with motion away from this point. The bubble of light begins to move in the direction of increasing the refractive index, that is, towards the maximum. [8] The same explanation is true for ball lightning falling from the sky. The maximum air density is a few meters from the earth's surface. Directly near the earth's surface, the air density decreases due to the heating of air from the earth's surface, which, in turn, is heated by solar radiation. Ball lightning, falling from the sky, where the air density increases towards the earth, stops at a distance where the air density is maximum. With further approach to the earth, upward forces arise.[9] The question may arise - what kind of object can penetrate a window pane without damaging it because the air cannot penetrate through the glass? The answer is simple.[10] Indeed, the air does not penetrate glass, only light does. But on the other side of the glass is just such air. The penetrating light compresses this air. For light, glass is just another optical medium with a different refractive index. The disappearance of a bubble of light is similar to the disappearance of a soap bubble, which disappears due to the fact that the thickness of the soap film gradually decreases. As a result, there comes a point when the soap bubble becomes unstable. The film breaks and the soap bubble disappears, leaving only drops from the soap film. A similar process takes place for the bubble of light. The energy of the circulating light in a film of highly compressed air gradually decreases due to the gradual emission of light into the surrounding space, which leads to a decrease in the pressure of the compressed air. At some point, the bubble of light becomes unstable. Light leaves a layer of highly compressed air and scatters in all directions of the surrounding space. The compressed air begins to expand and when the expansion is completed, no traces remain of the bubble of light. However, there is a more difficult task. It is required to explain stability of ball lightning in terms of the generally accepted laws of physics and optics. Really, compressed air has a tendency to expand, circulating light has the same tendency and it is not clear why their interaction should prevent these trends. Since this is a problem with a known positive answer in advance, a solution to this problem was found, although this is not an easy task. [11] [12] [13] The above reasoning is correct if the change in the refractive index with increasing radius is not taken into account. It is shown that in a bubble of light, it is necessary to consider not the change in radius, but the change in the product of the radius and the refractive index of the compressed air in which the light circulates. Provided that an increase in radius is accompanied by a decrease in the refractive index of compressed air due to an increase in its volume and a corresponding decrease in its density, this product can decrease with increasing radius and the circulating light can be stable. Of course, this condition is not satisfied with a small air compression, when the air refractive index differs slightly from unity. However, if the refractive index is large enough, then this condition can be satisfied. Thus, from the above simple considerations, it follows that the refractive index should differ significantly from unity, which is possible with extremely strong air compression when the air density approaches that of water. The study of the necessary conditions under which stability can exist has led to results according to which the energy densities of compressed air and circulating light should be record high. Based on the stability conditions, other parameters of the circulating light were determined.[14] Besides, it was explained why the lifetime of circulating light is approximately three orders of magnitude longer than the lifetime of sunlight in the Earth's atmosphere.[15] This conclusion is also supported by observations. The greatest scientist Faraday after whom the unit of electrical capacity is named said: "Nothing is too wonderful to be true if it is consistent with the laws of nature." The famous American writer Mark Twain also respected reality. He believed that "fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't. " Therefore, sooner or later, the scientific community will have to come to terms with the fact that ball lightning is a fairly simple object, the existence of which no one even suspected, let alone investigated. As Newton said, nature loves simplicity. It can be concluded that the nature of ball lightning has been solved, but the solution is so unexpected that it takes time to be recognized.

  1. ^ Singer, Stanley (1971). The Nature of ball lightning. New York: Plenum Press.
  2. ^ Stakhanov, Igor (1979). The Nature of ball lightning. Moscowk: Atomizdat.
  3. ^ Grigor’ev, A.I.; Grigor’eva, L.D.; Shiryaeva, S.O. (1992). "Ball lightning penetration into closed rooms: 43 eyewitness accounts". J. Sci. Explo. 6(3): 261-279.
  4. ^ Turner, David (1998). "Ball lightning and other meteorological phenomena". Physics reports. 293: 1-60.
  5. ^ Sagan, Paul (2004). Ball lightning: Paradox of physics. New York: iUniversity. doi:10.52305/OMGV4259.
  6. ^ Singer, Stanley (1971). The Nature of ball lightning. New York: Plenum Press.
  7. ^ Stakhanov, Igor (1979). The Nature of ball lightning. Moscow: Atomizdat.
  8. ^ Torchigin, Vladimir,; Torchigin, Alexander (2017). "How ball lightning manages to catch up a flying aircraft and penetrate into its salon". Optik. 148: 196.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ Torchigin, Vladimir (2018). "Explanation of abnormal behavior of ball lightning near the earth surface". Optik. 171: 167.
  10. ^ Torchigin, Vladimir,; Torchigin, Alexander (2016). "How the ball lightning enters the room through the windowpanes". Optik. 127: 5876.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ Torchigin, Vladimir (2019). "Ball lightning as a bubble of self-confined light". Optik. 186: 63-71.
  12. ^ Torchigin, Vladimir (2019). "Ball lightning as a bubble of light: Existence and stability". Optik. 193: 162961.
  13. ^ Torchigin, Vladimir (2019). "Physics of a ball lightning in a form of a bubble of light". Optik. 194: 294-301.
  14. ^ Torchigin, Vladimir (2021). "Parameters of natural ball lightning derived from its optical model". Optik. 243: 1673901.
  15. ^ Torchigin, Vladimir (2019). "Physics of a ball lightning in a form of a bubble of light". Optik. 194: 294-301.