新西兰科学家制造出60米长人造闪电

2011/11/10 13:19:56

这张照片中展示的是一根长达60米的电弧

This photograph shows a 60-meter-long arc, thought to be the longest of its type ever created. (Credit: Rowan Sinton, Ryan van Herel, Dr. Wade Enright, and Prof. Pat Bodger (researchers), Ryan van Herel and Dr. Stewart Hardie (photo).)

北京时间11月10日消息，新西兰坎特伯雷大学高压试验室的科学家们近日成功创造出一束长达60米的放电弧。这道人造闪电发出的荧荧绿光照亮了建筑物和周围的树木。科学家们此次开发的是一种新技术，可以利用较少的能源产生超长电弧。电弧是当一股电脉冲通过一根极细的铜丝时产生的。

通过运用爆炸丝代替传统的直接空气放电的方式，研究人员成功地将实验所需的电力降低 95%。这张照片中显示一个长达60米的电弧，这被认为是采用这种方法制造出来的迄今长度最长的电弧。研究人员们希望这种新方法接下来能有更广泛的应用，包括从自然界真实雷暴中引出闪电，或者制造新型发电机等等。

Researchers Create Extra-Long Electrical Arcs Using Less Energy

ScienceDaily (Nov. 8, 2011) — Researchers at the University of Canterbury, in New Zealand, have developed a new, lower-voltage method of generating extra-long, lightning-like electrical arcs.

The arcs are created when an electrical impulse is applied to a thin copper wire that subsequently explodes. By jump-starting the arcs using exploding wires, as opposed to the traditional method of directly breaking down air, the researchers reduced the amount of voltage needed to create an arc of a given length by more than 95 percent.

The researchers have achieved a 60-meter-long arc, thought to be the longest of its type ever created using this method.

The researchers hope that the new method could have wide applications, including inducing real lightning from thunderclouds and creating novel new electrical machines that contain plasma conductors and coils.