Ball Lightning
A Popular Guide to a Longstanding Mystery in Atmospheric Electricity
Authors: Boerner, Herbert
Free Preview- Introduced with a foreword by Earle Williams, leading MIT lightning researcher
- A modern review of ball lightning for the general reader
- Includes many striking photos
- Includes new results linking ball lightning to "normal" lightning physics
- Separates facts from fiction in ball lightning research
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- About this book
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Ball lightning is an enigma. These luminous objects that appear occasionally during thunderstorms and can reach several meters in diameter have been a mystery to science for about 200 years. Despite several thousands of reported observations, their nature is still unknown. In this book, well documented cases of ball lightning are described and used to unravel some aspects of this mysterious form of atmospheric electricity. Throughout the book, the author discusses the various facets of the problem in an accessible but rigorous style, delivering a readable and informative text that will captivate the curious reader. He finally reaches the surprising conclusion that the solution to this puzzle may have been hidden in plain sight for many years.
A foreword by Earle Williams, leading lightning researcher at MIT, introduces the book.
- About the authors
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Herbert Boerner obtained his PhD for experimental work in High Energy Physics from Bonn University in 1981. After postdoc positions at KEK in Japan and CERN in Geneva he joined Philips research in 1986, first working in the Hamburg laboratory, and from 1995 on in the Aachen laboratory. From this year until his retirement in 2012 he worked on the physics and engineering of organic light emitting diodes (OLED).
- Table of contents (13 chapters)
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Introduction
Pages 1-2
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Ball Lightning: Observers’ Tales
Pages 3-8
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The Search for Photographic Evidence
Pages 9-19
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A Bit of Philosophy, or What Has a Razor to Do with Ball Lightning?
Pages 21-28
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Organizing and Analyzing the Observations
Pages 29-49
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Table of contents (13 chapters)
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Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
-
- Book Title
- Ball Lightning
- Book Subtitle
- A Popular Guide to a Longstanding Mystery in Atmospheric Electricity
- Authors
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- Herbert Boerner
- Copyright
- 2019
- Publisher
- Springer International Publishing
- Copyright Holder
- Springer Nature Switzerland AG
- eBook ISBN
- 978-3-030-20783-0
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-030-20783-0
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-3-030-20782-3
- Softcover ISBN
- 978-3-030-20785-4
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- XIV, 205
- Number of Illustrations
- 8 b/w illustrations, 49 illustrations in colour
- Topics