Ball Lightning

by Daniel Rosenthal

What is Ball lightning? It seems to be believed that an electromagnetic wave has to have a minimum of one cycle. This must be right, one cycle is the shortest wave. One cycle would mean the electric field would go ‘up’ once then ‘down’ once and then it’s finished.Just one ‘up’ then just one ‘down’ makes the shortest radio wave.Suppose that you have a shutter which opens then closes very quickly. Suppose that you use your shutter, which is at first open, to cut the 1 cycle radio wave in half? What would remain? What would you have? I believe that if you cut the shortest radio wave in half, using a fast enough open and close shutter, you would get something very profound and important.The part that gets through the shutter is only half of a wave. Of course this half wave is often called ‘a half cycle’. As it flies through the shutter and the shutter closes behind it, you get a ‘half cycle’ which is isolated and on its own.I am sure this separated isolated half cycle would not regenerate the other half of the wave. So start with a radio wave which is only one wavelength long, one ‘up’ then one ‘down’ and pass it through an extremely fast shutter which opens and closes so fast it cuts it exactly in half, and you get something very new to science.(Which you could call a "separated" half-cycle.) It has an electric field which always points in one direction. It has a magnetic field which always points in one direction.It moves at the speed of light.

91 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 25, 2017

Reviews

[Brandon Nimon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not up to the standards of the Remembrance of Earth's Past series. But it clearly shows lots of imagination and is still a pretty dang good sci-fi book. Though characters seemed a little more foreign than the characters in the Three Body Problem. Still definitely worth a read if you enjoyed Remembrance of Earth's Past.

[Truong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whoops wrong book!

[Neo Paji · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book but drags a bit to the middle then picks up faster.

[Caitria O'Neill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tragic, beautiful, scientifically enlightening.