{"id":210461,"date":"2023-02-17T08:04:01","date_gmt":"2023-02-17T08:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthbenefitstimes.com\/glossary\/?p=210461"},"modified":"2023-02-17T08:04:01","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T08:04:01","slug":"ball-lightning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthbenefitstimes.com\/glossary\/ball-lightning\/","title":{"rendered":"Ball lightning"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mysterious natural electrical phenomenon that reportedly occurs in the form of a burst of electrical energy resembling a fireball. The first modern study of ball lightning was written by Russian scientist G. W. Richman, who himself was killed while studying the phenomenon in 1754. Ball lightning is described as a sphere of light that varies in size from a few inches to several feet. It hovers or moves about in the air, free from any physical conductor (a characteristic that distinguishes it from St. Elmo\u2019s Fire). Ball lightning ranges widely in color and length of occurrence. Frequently an occurrence ends in an explosion.<\/p>\n

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Explanations of ball lightning vary widely. Some doubt the existence of the phenomenon, reducing the reports to hallucination or misidentified mundane phenomena. Others have moved to more esoteric explanations such as antimatter, a hypothesis suggested by E. T. E Ashley and C. Whitehead in a 1971 article in Nature. It is difficult to agree on an explanation for the phenomenon for two reasons: First, an occurrence of ball lightning is a short-lived and unpredictable phenomenon; second, it is difficult to assign a single explanation to a phenomenon whose manifestations show such radical differences in color, length, and method of demise (exploding or gradually fading away).<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A mysterious natural electrical phenomenon that reportedly occurs in the form of a burst of electrical energy resembling a fireball. The first modern study of ball lightning was written by Russian scientist G. W. Richman, who himself was killed while studying the phenomenon in 1754. Ball lightning is described as a sphere of light that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b"],"yoast_head":"\nBall lightning - Definition of Ball lightning<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A mysterious natural electrical phenomenon that reportedly occurs in the form of a burst of electrical energy resembling a fireball. The first modern study of ball lightning was written by Russian scientist G. W. Richman, who himself was killed while studying the phenomenon in 1754. Ball lightning is described as a sphere of light that varies in size from a few inches to several feet. It hovers or moves about in the air, free from any physical conductor (a characteristic that distinguishes it from St. Elmo\u2019s Fire). Ball lightning ranges widely in color and length of occurrence. Frequently an occurrence ends in an explosion.Explanations of ball lightning vary widely. Some doubt the existence of the phenomenon, reducing the reports to hallucination or misidentified mundane phenomena. Others have moved to more esoteric explanations such as antimatter, a hypothesis suggested by E. T. E Ashley and C. Whitehead in a 1971 article in Nature. It is difficult to agree on an explanation for the phenomenon for two reasons: First, an occurrence of ball lightning is a short-lived and unpredictable phenomenon; second, it is difficult to assign a single explanation to a phenomenon whose manifestations show such radical differences in color, length, and method of demise (exploding or gradually fading away).\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.healthbenefitstimes.com\/glossary\/ball-lightning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ball lightning - Definition of Ball lightning\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A mysterious natural electrical phenomenon that reportedly occurs in the form of a burst of electrical energy resembling a fireball. The first modern study of ball lightning was written by Russian scientist G. W. Richman, who himself was killed while studying the phenomenon in 1754. Ball lightning is described as a sphere of light that varies in size from a few inches to several feet. It hovers or moves about in the air, free from any physical conductor (a characteristic that distinguishes it from St. Elmo\u2019s Fire). Ball lightning ranges widely in color and length of occurrence. Frequently an occurrence ends in an explosion.Explanations of ball lightning vary widely. Some doubt the existence of the phenomenon, reducing the reports to hallucination or misidentified mundane phenomena. Others have moved to more esoteric explanations such as antimatter, a hypothesis suggested by E. T. E Ashley and C. Whitehead in a 1971 article in Nature. It is difficult to agree on an explanation for the phenomenon for two reasons: First, an occurrence of ball lightning is a short-lived and unpredictable phenomenon; second, it is difficult to assign a single explanation to a phenomenon whose manifestations show such radical differences in color, length, and method of demise (exploding or gradually fading away).\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.healthbenefitstimes.com\/glossary\/ball-lightning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Glossary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-17T08:04:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Glossary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Glossary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.healthbenefitstimes.com\/glossary\/ball-lightning\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.healthbenefitstimes.com\/glossary\/ball-lightning\/\",\"name\":\"Ball lightning - Definition of Ball lightning\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.healthbenefitstimes.com\/glossary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-17T08:04:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-17T08:04:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.healthbenefitstimes.com\/glossary\/#\/schema\/person\/ccfef987a4882e6356ae6d77d33e74c5\"},\"description\":\"A mysterious natural electrical phenomenon that reportedly occurs in the form of a burst of electrical energy resembling a fireball. 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