digg

Join DiggAbout

Discover and share the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.

See the original image at gizmodo.com

Slow Motion Lightning Video is Mindblowing

gizmodo.com — Well, this is just about the most amazing thing I've ever seen. It's a lightning bolt that's shooting down from the sky, shot in slow motion. I'm not sure exactly how fast this camera is, but it's got to be shooting at a speed faster than the Casio EX-F1 can shoot at, at least at a resolution this high. Whatever, who cares?

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • jweaver621, on 08/07/2008, -11/+134Awesome!
    • eggballs, on 08/08/2008, -10/+3I know. Its' so Mindblowing! It's really Amazing! It's Insane!
      • 5urr3al5am, on 08/08/2008, -5/+1Amazing? Na.. what's amazing is that a day or two after that popular pole came out reporting that people were hearing too much about Obama, we see next to nothing on Digg about him? Now that's truly amazing!!.. the powers that be took a cue from the pole and gave it a rest.
      • sabach, on 08/08/2008, -0/+3Poll. It's poll.
      • RobotCitizen, on 08/09/2008, -0/+2Everyone knows Polish people control the media.
    • stevenbrown, on 08/08/2008, -0/+2Thats cool how it branches off and the first one to hit the ground is the path the large bolt goes through
      Sidenote: The ending would be cool to see
      • init100, on 08/08/2008, -0/+7The small "streamers" that branches out in the beginning of the clip likely ionizes the air, creating tunnels of electrically conductive air. When the first one hits the ground, the main discharge happens through this tunnel.
    • ayeroxor, on 08/08/2008, -0/+4site running slowly.

      Direct fullscreen link: http://www.todaysbigthing.com/betamax/betamax.swf? ...
    • Henko, on 08/08/2008, -1/+1This has also been on youtube for a while:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luydcXrI6fk

      It's very chicken-egg.
    • PimpSetBitch, on 08/08/2008, -0/+1What kind of camera was it?
    • IglooBurner, on 08/08/2008, -0/+0Shocking!
  • kaskinen, on 08/07/2008, -1/+305Holy Crap. Can someone tell this guy to do more???
    • Dylson, on 08/08/2008, -4/+60What do u want him to do? Hows a barrel roll sound?
    • lehmon, on 08/08/2008, -0/+9I believe this was done by Tim Samaras. He presented his findings at the Severe Storms & Doppler Radar conference a couple years ago. Basically, he has a huge camera that sits inside of a trailer and goes storm chasing with it. If my memory serves me right, National Geographic is helping fund his studies.
      • Cybergarou, on 08/08/2008, -0/+2Actually, this was done by Tom Warner. I first saw this video when he submitted it to the local AMS photo and video contest. He does this for a hobby and has a history of amazing lightning photos.
      • unreg, on 08/08/2008, -0/+2Wrong. It was either Danielle Steele or Heath Tesh.

    • TimeIsTissue, on 08/08/2008, -2/+1done. check the top 10.
  • KMAC2580, on 08/07/2008, -1/+173This is amazing! I wish it would say how much "real time" had elapsed in the video.
    • Javlington, on 08/08/2008, -21/+6There's a large wikipedia article on Lightning worth to read here:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning

      I don't know if the answer to your question is in there, though.
    • RichGC, on 08/08/2008, -0/+38I just watched the CBC video linked below, and it says the 'branching' stage takes 1 millisecond.

      Also in that video they only managed to get 10 frames of the branching, so going by how smooth this video was, it must be an incredibly fast camera or a clever bit of cg.
    • da_bradler, on 08/08/2008, -0/+21so does the branching stage happen for every strike?
    • aaronhoffmeyer, on 08/08/2008, -3/+8I'm pretty sure that the meter on the progress bar is there for a reason, especially since the branching stage in the video takes about 1-2 hundredths of a second (not milliseconds), according to the meter, which is reasonable. At real time speed, you can see a flash of the branching in the sky when lightning strikes. I doubt that the branching only takes 1 millisecond ... it just would not register in your brain at all.

      A huge ball of electric charge flashes at the beginning of the video, and branches out to find something that can drain off the excess charge ... a very low potential energy state with a near infinite capacity to absorb that charge ... like, such as the Iraq, er ... uh, I mean ... the earth.

      Once that pathway is established, the branches that lead to nowhere are drained and basically disappear. The balance of the time, about 20-50 hundredths of a second, the excess charge flows from the high potential/charge area to the low potential/charge area, until the excess charge has been nearly completely drained off. At that point, a break occurs in the pathway and the lightning bolt ceases to exist.

      By the way, two of my friends were killed by lightning, so this is not cool, and you know it.
  • vjk2005, on 08/07/2008, -2/+106This is insane! So much beauty in just a fraction of a second.
    • nicejai, on 08/08/2008, -2/+51The cool thing is is that you're watching mother nature perform some weird parallel breadth-first search for the path-of-least-resistance on a graph the size of [the-number-of-air-molecules-in-that-chunk-of-sky]^2 in less than a second.

      Now *that* is insane.
      • xEn1gma, on 08/08/2008, -42/+1Shut up.
      • Whammbo, on 08/08/2008, -5/+3Interesting that we can so easily attribute things to "mother nature", but mock people that do the same to God.
    • megamod, on 08/08/2008, -4/+5It looked like 4th of joo-lie

      I always thought that lightning bolts originated from the ground? I guess this almost definitely disproves that.
      • t0x2c, on 08/08/2008, -2/+9Watch the video again. The streamers come from the sky, but the actual surge happens from the ground.
      • megamod, on 08/08/2008, -1/+4so I'm guessing the streamers don't count as part of the lightning? what is it than? magical glitter falling from the sky?
    • kiiwii, on 08/08/2008, -0/+12That's what she said.
  • Jiert, on 08/07/2008, -2/+419Absolutely amazing, I love how you can watch it search for a ground.
    • coasterswim, on 08/08/2008, -2/+32It's almost like each branch is in a race and the first one that connects with the ground wins and the bolt chooses that path.
      • tas08, on 08/08/2008, -0/+4That's exactly what I was thinking... it's just amazing.
      • chedderfiend, on 08/08/2008, -0/+1Except it doesn't just choose the path of that particular search tentacle... it picks the quickest, shortest, and fastest path to get to wherever reached ground first. At least thats what it looks like. So friggin cool!
      • stoanhart, on 08/23/2008, -0/+1Which is why it makes sense not to be the tallest thing. The lucky tendril of lightning over your head wins!
    • DiggasWAttitude, on 08/08/2008, -4/+3So a couple months ago on NOVA Science Now deGrasse was talking to someone who said lightning got its energy from gamma ray bursts, essentially saying supernovae cause lightning strikes. I haven't heard if that research has been verified. Anyone know? It would be pretty badass to think that you are watching a display of energy from a star that exploded billions of light years away.
      • t0x2c, on 08/08/2008, -0/+5BUT HOW CAN A WAVE BE A PARTICLE?!!!!!
      • harmil, on 08/08/2008, -0/+4That research has been ongoing for some years. There's a fair amount of substantiation for the idea that energetic particles from space trigger the start of the cascade of a lightning bolt, but to say that lightning "gets its energy" from cosmic rays would be wrong. The energy involved is a charge delta between the clouds and Earth.

        It's also a rather steep speculation that these particular particles are coming from gamma-ray burts specifically, unless there's been some extra info recently.

      • tommyrocksout, on 08/08/2008, -0/+2say "particular particle" five times fast.
    • Cofaloaf, on 08/08/2008, -0/+4I never really thought about the fact that there are multiple charges looking for the ground and the bolt is the one that connects. That video gave me a new understanding of how lightning works. Awesome.
      • Brad324, on 08/08/2008, -0/+2consider yourself lucky next time lightning strikes nearby... just know that there was a branch that was racing to reach your head, but it was too slow.
    • enotswhat, on 08/08/2008, -0/+1that was thee dopest
    • laibixi, on 08/08/2008, -0/+5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal
  • HHP2K, on 08/07/2008, -2/+56That was bloody wicked. You don't even see the first few seconds of that in realtime, that's how damn fast that camera is shooting. I want one.
    • NikoKun, on 08/08/2008, -0/+37Yeah, usually it all happens so fast, all you notice is the final solid bolt. All those tentacle parts that come down at first, are usually impossible to see.

      I found it amazing to see that first it all comes down from the sky to find a connection point, then once found, the actual lightning bolt speeds up from the ground toward the top! How cool!
      • ThreeDee912, on 08/08/2008, -0/+3Dugg for "tentacle parts". Don't ask why.
      • FlyingSpaghetti, on 08/08/2008, -0/+5Those tenticle parts are electrified noodly-appendages!
  • yillip, on 08/07/2008, -1/+41woooooooooow that was sweet........it was like a race for the spidery things to get to the ground and the first one to touch earth got the BIG one.........
    • unravelled, on 08/08/2008, -1/+2there was also an invisible race from the ground up that provided the pathways you see the lighting traveling back down, so was the "winner" predetermined by this grounding pathway? if so which is the real winner?
  • drethedog, on 08/07/2008, -27/+216That's God playing with his Tesla-Coil......
    • Lewie, on 08/08/2008, -5/+117Come on, that was funny. Is he dugg down because he said "God"?

      If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is "God is crying." And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is "Probably because of something you did." - Jack Handey
      • santaliqueur, on 08/08/2008, -3/+61Liberal Digg associates "God" with Christianity. And that is associated with right wing politics, and you know how that is perceived around here.
      • halfdirt, on 08/08/2008, -35/+4Buried for mentioning God. For only five bucks I can also call you a sheeple.
      • styx31989, on 08/08/2008, -6/+1halfdirt: well, I thought it was funny....
        most people around here can't tell if your being sarcastic unless you actually TELL them you are being sarcastic.
      • Lewie, on 08/08/2008, -1/+2I'm quite liberal and at least agnostic, but I don't get offended at the word "god". At the very least it's part of our culture, and brought about some cool art. I would've laughed the same if he said "That's Zeus smiting peasants", or "That's the FSM downloading Ride the Lightning".
    • DroogInPhoenix, on 08/08/2008, -21/+1Probably because it is a capitol G.
    • ninjaskimo, on 08/08/2008, -11/+6More likely a tesla coil too many tesla troopers and one stupid G.I.
    • xlneoMAXlx, on 08/08/2008, -8/+3Not god, FSM!
    • deaftly, on 08/08/2008, -1/+2who?
    • nclark, on 08/08/2008, -1/+1True.
    • VModulus, on 08/08/2008, -1/+7No, that's Tesla playing with his God-Coil...
    • Emtoor, on 08/08/2008, -0/+2Don't taze me god!
    • worldnick, on 08/20/2008, -1/+1Comments like this are lame because they are so far beyond the scope of normal intelligence that if a normal person were to read it they would just become frightened and want to kill intelligent people like usual. That you would post this kind of lets me know how out of touch you are. I'm a genius and when I see geniuses writing stuff like this I know your about to get pruned off the evolutionary tree unless you get in touch.
  • Deilin, on 08/07/2008, -43/+4 Yes, but can that camera run Crysis?
    • MattNF, on 08/08/2008, -6/+26Yes, but can you stop saying old and annoying memes?
    • Lewie, on 08/08/2008, -17/+12***** you, two of my friends died trying to play crysis on a camera
      • ayeroxor, on 08/08/2008, -0/+9... outside during a thunderstorm...
      • styx31989, on 08/08/2008, -4/+1this ***** meme has to stop.
      • Lewie, on 08/08/2008, -0/+2***** you, two of my friends died trying to stop a ***** meme
  • cslawren, on 08/07/2008, -5/+66This is the first video I've seen on Digg that has left me speechless. Actually, to be fair, I saw it on Gizmodo and saw on the Digg toolbar that someone had already submitted it. Kudos to the Digg toolbar.
    • joegibes, on 08/08/2008, -0/+4Good thing you didn't submit a THIRD duplicate (that would eventually reach the top 10).
    • livejamie, on 08/08/2008, -0/+4This is the first video on Digg to leave you speechless?

      Did you even SEE technoviking?
  • SpaghettiTeapot, on 08/07/2008, -4/+6Astonishing, I'd like to see this applied again.
    • diggopolous, on 08/08/2008, -1/+3Sorry but lightning never strikes twice in the same spot.


      /s
  • DeskFlyer, on 08/08/2008, -1/+181Now that was ***** cool. I never realized there were so many leaders searching for a ground streamer to connect with.
  • vinibinini, on 08/08/2008, -23/+44I almost found Jesus when i saw that video
    • Frogee, on 08/08/2008, -2/+79ZEUS
    • peterjmag, on 08/08/2008, -6/+64I found the Flying Spaghetti Monster, but only for a second.
      • da_bradler, on 08/08/2008, -4/+17Watch as our mighty lord sends down his multitude of noodley electric appendages then allowing is power to flow from him to the earth.

        Truly proof of existence of our O'Noodley Lord.

        rAmen.
      • FlyingSpaghetti, on 08/08/2008, -1/+10You called?
    • rockstar1o9, on 08/08/2008, -13/+1you can find Jesus between her legs
    • kaushikc, on 08/08/2008, -11/+2Jesus Christ, what crap!
    • crc77, on 08/08/2008, -6/+1If he was around when that struck then he'll be a bit crispy around the edges now.
    • hasansexy, on 08/08/2008, -2/+5I love you.
    • Darleenie, on 08/08/2008, -2/+3Mighty Thor!!!
  • quidpro, on 08/08/2008, -1/+55I always heard that lightning starts from the ground. As I was watching this I was thinking, "well this lightning isn't". But then, BLAM...that big one comes right up, and just sits there for a while. If that is the usual bolt of lightning, that happens for a second or so, then the initial charge must happen so much faster....

    From the vid, it does seem to be a charge generated within the clouds reacting with a charge on the ground...and then the "best" path gets found and ZZZAP, connection established. Crazy.
    • AeroMerde, on 08/08/2008, -2/+20Really, I think that the whole "ground up" thing is a myth. The cloud is usually negatively charged, says Wikipedia. So the ground is the "positive" terminal. So yeah, we define current as going from positive to negative, but in reality negative is the congregation of electrons so the electrons are going from the cloud to the ground.

      I could very much be wrong, though, and welcome anyone who knows more about the subject letting me know.
      • init100, on 08/08/2008, -1/+2To complicate things, there are also discharges from the upper positively charged cloud top, called anvil lightning, although these are much more uncommon than the regular cloud-to-ground and cloud-to-cloud discharges.

        This likely works because the ground has a potential of 0 V, while the cloud top has a potential of +x V (for some positive value x) and the cloud bottom has a potential of -y V (for some positive value y). Anvil lightning is much more powerful than ordinary cloud-to-ground discharges, so x is likely much larger than y.
      • Sponky, on 08/08/2008, -0/+11There's an upward leader visible in this video:

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YM-C15bifU
      • HonestAbeinator, on 08/08/2008, -2/+2You're right, the electrons do move down from the cloud. However, the lightning flash actually moves up. This is because electrons fill the path before the flash and only ignite the air afterwards. I think it moves up because the connection is made near the ground, so that is where the flash will begin...or something. I'm not too sure on the last part.
    • pixas, on 08/08/2008, -0/+6Go to iTunes U and look for MIT8.02, lecture 6 with Walter Lewin. He talks in some detail about lighting sparks, you might find it interesting.
    • kmmcca, on 08/08/2008, -0/+1Here are a couple of sources concerning "stepped leaders".

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepped_leader
      http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/electri ...

      There are many more if you search. I have long argued with friends and family that a lightning "strike" moves from the earth upward. This video is a great representation of that. Basically the lightning begins in the clouds, sends some stepped leaders down toward earth, then when in close proximity to the earth the "strike" charge is released from the ground following a stepped leader up.

      I love this video.

    • DestroyFascism, on 08/08/2008, -0/+2One aspect I noticed was the bright rounded leaders wandering. Could this be an element of some observed "ball lightening" phenomena?
  • ZurMacht, on 08/08/2008, -0/+78I really wasn't expecting something this cool.
  • primrib, on 08/08/2008, -3/+241That's an amazing shot, and it's gotta be one hell of a camera. Displaying in 24 seconds what the human eye normally sees in a fraction of a second. It's probably shooting at over 5,000 fps. Maybe even over 9,000. Seriously.
    • j0nnyDiGITAL, on 08/08/2008, -9/+67WHAT 9000?!

      Wait..lemme guess. "old meme is old"?
      • christoastdigg, on 09/04/2008, -2/+7Yeah thanks for explaining that...
      • itsripitsrip, on 08/08/2008, -3/+19awesome meme is awesome more like it.
    • Javlington, on 08/08/2008, -4/+8I love you
    • ersatzphi, on 08/08/2008, -1/+30Well they said they filmed something that takes 1/1000th of a second into 10 pictures or frames. That makes it 10000frames per second, 10000fps.

      sick
    • joeydoo, on 08/08/2008, -0/+16AND it's 10,000 frames per second in the DARK! That's an amazing camera.
      • DestroyFascism, on 08/08/2008, -0/+5Going by the green it could be infrared thus eliminating anything else required by normal lighting standards. I also noticed the glow did not reflect of anything spectacularly. You should see some reflection from ground foliage, I saw none which at least in my mind helps me point to IR imaging.
    • directedition, on 08/08/2008, -1/+1I really wish they had details posted. This would have to be shot on 16mm in a rotating prism camera pushing the absolute limits of high speed photography. I'm doubting that something like this would even be possible, but it's hard to say without some data on it.
  • atorch, on 08/08/2008, -2/+131I love some of the youtube comments: "Yeah, it was kind of cool. But I analyzed it closely, and it's obviously a fake. Can't fool me!"
    • gaqua, on 08/08/2008, -18/+8Actually, I think I'm more impressed with the "Man, that was awesome! WHAT A CAMERA!" comments here on Digg.

      This is the finger of god, miles long, designed to fire an electrical current directly onto the planet. It's a naturally occurring phenomena that happens thousands of times a day in the world, can kill you and everybody you love, or at least ruin their day, and not only is it intensely powerful, it sounds like two planets smashing together. And we're wondering what kind of camera it was.

      Imagine if we could just harness the free electricity from lightning storms for our own usage.

      I mean, outside of Back to the Future.

      • simg, on 08/08/2008, -5/+2just guessing, but there probably isn't *that* much actual energy in a lightning strike. at least not in the context of a conventional power stations sustained output of 1000's of Megawatts.
      • simg, on 08/08/2008, -5/+2just guessing, but I don't think there is *that* much energy in a lightning strike. at least not compared to a conventional power stations sustained output of 1000's of Megawatts

      • init100, on 08/08/2008, -0/+3@simg

        According to Wikipedia, an average lightning bolt transfers a charge of around five coulombs and 500 MJ of energy. Five coulombs is the charge transferred by a five-amp current for one second, and 500 MJ is the energy content equivalent to 500 000 kW for one second (the latter is equivalent to the electrical energy output of a small (500 MW) commercial nuclear power reactor for one second).
      • Jamma27, on 08/08/2008, -1/+63.21 Jigawatts!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Great Scott!
      • Greg2k, on 08/08/2008, -3/+2"It's over NINE THOUSAAAAAAAND!"
      • Brss45, on 08/08/2008, -1/+3"It's a naturally occurring phenomena that happens thousands of times a day in the world, can kill you and everybody you love, or at least ruin their day, and not only is it intensely powerful, it sounds like two planets smashing together. And we're wondering what kind of camera it was."

        why so srs?
      • newms32, on 08/08/2008, -0/+1Your post has inspired me to bow down to nature and relinquish all that is humanly and trivial.
      • AyaJulia, on 08/08/2008, -0/+6When the extraordinary happens all the time, it becomes ordinary. We see lightning on earth, as you said, thousands of times a day. We've never seen a camera do this. It's really not that difficult a concept to wrap your brain around.
    • kakihara0513, on 08/08/2008, -0/+22Except that everyone knows what kind of damage and power lightning has.

      BUT THE CAMERA ON THE OTHER HAND
    • Hoogs, on 08/08/2008, -0/+16YouTube comments are some of the most ridiculous, unintelligent, and often hilariously stupid things I've ever seen. I cannot understand where all these idiots come from and how there are so many of them in one place.
      • jonthefisherman, on 08/08/2008, -1/+5they come from 4chan and Digg
    • austin006, on 08/08/2008, -1/+1sarcasm, perhaps?
    • ThreeDee912, on 08/09/2008, -0/+2No, he's right. The shadows are all wrong.
  • drewfer, on 08/08/2008, -0/+20It looks like that one type of firework... you know which one I'm talking about.
    • Davoidbot, on 08/08/2008, -0/+7* HIGH FIVE*
    • bas4ball, on 08/08/2008, -0/+5No, actually I don't. Are you referring to something sexual? Please enlighten me.
    • austin006, on 08/08/2008, -0/+0oh yeah that one. the one that 'emits showers of sparks'?
  • Reaktor5, on 08/08/2008, -31/+44Really? Buried.
    http://digg.com/general_sciences/Slow_Motion_Light ...
    • tm13lke, on 08/08/2008, -1/+10I seriously thought I experiencing deja vu
    • KMartSheriff, on 08/08/2008, -15/+8Not all of us live on Digg 24/7, so some repeats are nice once in a while.
      • tekkitan, on 08/08/2008, -2/+3Yes, I love seeing things like "McCain is a liar!" or "Obama eats children" twice in 12 hours, let alone once.
      • Reaktor5, on 08/08/2008, -1/+10It's called clicking page 2, it's not that hard.
      • ewsherm, on 08/08/2008, -2/+7i dont mind repeats but they are but not in the same day.
      • ayeroxor, on 08/08/2008, -1/+2^wha?
      • Myonosken, on 08/08/2008, -1/+1Its still in the top ten for today.
    • lajaw, on 08/08/2008, -7/+10I buried that article because it's from huffinitpost.
      • Ultra42, on 08/08/2008, -4/+1This one is better quality, I'm burying you, tee hee >.>
    • joegibes, on 08/08/2008, -0/+21THIS article was submitted 6 hours before the other one. However, the other one was made popular 3 hours before this one...
      • lajaw, on 08/08/2008, -1/+1That's because the other was a huffinitpost submission. The lefties here will digg anything from huffinitpost. It is the guiding light for the weak-wristed.
    • microview2007, on 08/08/2008, -1/+9Both stolen from the video posted on youtube a year ago.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luydcXrI6fk
    • PinkFloyd2003, on 08/08/2008, -1/+8People have the weirdest set of unwritten rules for themselves on here. Can't we agree that a cool video is a cool video regardless of who submitted it and when they submitted it?
    • burstaneurysm, on 08/08/2008, -0/+9When I submitted this, there was nothing on the dupe checker.
      The Huff Post one was submitted hours later.
      Obviously, the Huff Post guy has more friends to shout to.
    • thanasiskap, on 08/08/2008, -3/+4So lighting stroke twice on the same spot :)
    • anotherjack, on 08/08/2008, -0/+1They seek the pathways of being positively Dugg. Follow the ions, the password is:

      "the leaders were seeking the ground"
  • arjie, on 08/08/2008, -1/+12How did they do it? Did they use some uber-camera or was it multiple cameras shooting slightly out of sync? Curiosity is burning me up.
    • terminal157, on 08/08/2008, -0/+4Magic!
    • lehmon, on 08/08/2008, -0/+5I don't remember the details completely, but look up Tim Samaras. He was funded by National Geographic a couple years ago. Basically, he goes storm chasing with a huge camera pulled behind a truck trying to catch lighting for a research project. He had a pretty awesome presentation of everything at the Severe Storms & Doppler Radar Conference a couple years ago.
    • madrid, on 08/08/2008, -0/+4I can't be sure that the camera used was the Phantom, but if you're wondering what's possible, take a look at this : http://www.visionresearch.com/index.cfm?sector=htm ... (Phantom v12, 6,424 fps at High-Definition, 1280x800 pixels; up to 1 million fps at lower resolutions)
  • halogenik, on 08/08/2008, -0/+9that's pretty cool. It would have been cooler if I wasn't so desensitized by winamp, itunes, and WMP visualizations, but it's still pretty cool.
  • TheKitchenSinkX, on 08/08/2008, -2/+14One word:

    DAAAAAAAAAAMN!
    • Samsauce, on 08/08/2008, -4/+20That was three words actually and the third one is spelled wrong.
      • Dylson, on 08/08/2008, -3/+13Well aren't you a literal jackass?
      • TheKitchenSinkX, on 08/08/2008, -1/+2Way to try to be a grammar nazi.

        When I put a colon up, that grammatically shows that what I'm talking about applies to the next clause. DAAAAAAAAAMN is one word.

        And it's not spelled incorrectly. It's spelled with emphasis on onomatopoeia.
    • Goblin, on 08/08/2008, -0/+3...nature. You scary!
  • damian7, on 08/08/2008, -3/+6Must see moar
  • Aberen, on 08/08/2008, -38/+3***** you! two of my friends died during a thunderstorm!
    • Zep77, on 08/08/2008, -1/+13Sweet.
    • SSUK, on 08/08/2008, -0/+27Why didn't you?
    • thectrlfreak, on 08/08/2008, -6/+4Getting so worked up over, and adding a comment to simple video of a lightening strike on the internet?

      Troll much?
    • specialK16, on 08/08/2008, -4/+1Awesome meme is awesome.

      Even though you people hate, I love it.
  • DoctorGumbo, on 08/08/2008, -1/+6sexy...
  • ut2k4king, on 08/08/2008, -2/+4My only criticism is that it took a whole day to get on Digg. Fantastic video, I really want to know what camera they used to capture that.
  • kilogrammatic, on 08/08/2008, -0/+3That's absolutely... well, beautiful, honestly. It's fantastic how we can watch nature play out like this thanks to our technology, when to our normal eyes it's all happening in a fraction of a second. I want to see some Discovery Channel slow-mo lightning documentaries now, please!
  • Schrum, on 08/08/2008, -1/+1Wauw, that was really cool!!
  • tekkitan, on 08/08/2008, -13/+4This was pretty amazing, when it was posted on the front page hours ago...

    DUPE DUPE DUPE DUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
    • OfficialJoe, on 08/08/2008, -3/+2"I'm going to sing the DUPE song...dupe dupe dupedupe duuuuppee dupe dupe dupe dupeeeeee..."

      If GIR was a digger
    • Alegoo92, on 08/08/2008, -1/+1This is the THIRD time it's been on the page in less than 24 hours. What the hell, digg?
    • burstaneurysm, on 08/08/2008, -1/+2This was submitted 7 hours before the Huffington Post one... that's not my problem.
      I can call the Whambulance, if you need.
  • LactatingNinja, on 08/08/2008, -2/+9That's cool, I guess. But can it do it in sepia? I don't shoot in anything but sepia.
  • tama00, on 08/08/2008, -9/+3omg this hit digg this morning wtf?
  • wexmajor, on 08/08/2008, -0/+2I wouldn't have thought this would be physically possible.
  • Exbzurq, on 08/08/2008, -0/+38Here is another slow lightning video but the quality isn't as good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIU0OMa9TZs
    • spaceshipsix, on 08/08/2008, -0/+1That's pretty good. It was like building...building...building...phazaaahhhhh!
    • Fubeman, on 08/08/2008, -0/+5I don't know. I like this one just as much. Actually, it seems more "artistic" and fluid than the other one. Very beautiful! Thanks for adding the link. I love how from 0:08 to 0:35 you can see the large spike slowly working its way down, while the other shorter spikes (stepped leaders) are constantly looking for a connection until BAM, they find it. Never get tired of looking at these.
  • starblink, on 08/08/2008, -19/+1BOOOOOOOOOOORRRRINGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!
  • CATSCEO2, on 08/08/2008, -7/+4I'm sure its just me, but hasn't this been on the front page 3 times now?
  • Equinox2012, on 08/08/2008, -3/+9Pretty cool, but I see that alot... in my pants.
  • BrokenCircle, on 08/08/2008, -6/+3Buried there are two of these on the front page.
    • coldfire201, on 08/08/2008, -0/+1Seriously, this is ridiculous!
      • DragonForce4, on 08/09/2008, -0/+1Ridiculous?
        THIS IS SP- ***** it I'll just bury myself
  • LawerenceTalbot, on 08/08/2008, -0/+1It looks like the first strike is ball lightning producing an after image, followed by a normal strike.
  • Ortheos, on 08/08/2008, -1/+1Coooo
  • Jikul, on 08/08/2008, -0/+2Holy shiiiiiit!!!!

    Mother Nature always finds a way to amaze me.
  • tristan55555, on 08/08/2008, -0/+38Process and equipment explained in the documentary on CBC, Human Voltage: Struck By Lightning - video here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsVhNh6MGGg

  • Adam420, on 08/08/2008, -4/+1Iv seen lightning like this but it wasn't in slow motion...
  • skipalami, on 08/08/2008, -4/+1Watch to see the first "tenticle" touch the ground and then flash!
  • Nenros, on 08/08/2008, -6/+1According to wikipedia:
    "The progression of stepped leaders takes a comparatively long time (hundreds of milliseconds) to approach the ground."
    So this would not require a particularly fast video camera.
    • hotpuck6, on 08/08/2008, -0/+4OMG HUNDREDS of milliseconds? that's almost like a whole second!
      but then to get a high enough FPS to actually get a decent length video of it that you can actually see the detail, now that DOES require a particularly fast video camera.
  • rockstar1o9, on 08/08/2008, -1/+4Isn't there something very organic looking in the pattern of that lighting discharge? It reminds me of neural pathways or something.
    • Metasquares, on 08/08/2008, -0/+9Tree-like structures in nature tend to take that same general form. Blood vessels, airway trees, parts of the kidney, fault lines, rivers... they all have similar topological properties.

      (I published a paper on that)
    • anotherjack, on 08/08/2008, -1/+1Well, yes, nerves are linked by electric pathways
  • JagPop, on 08/08/2008, -4/+29At the website was this comment:

    BiZarRroBALlmeR at 05:14 PM on 08/07/08 Reply by Email *
    The second starts from the ground, hit play/pause between 4-5 seconds until you freeze it just at the right moment.

    BiZ was right! and I hadn't seen it until I hit pause shortly after "4" came up and viola! there is the second, and Much bigger, strike starting from the ground up. Whiz Bang! You may have to try it a couple of times. When you pause just right you'll see what looks like a bonfire at the ground.

    There is something "quantum" about this. The first branchy strike is like a possibility-tree, it keeps subdividing into yes/no mini branches and only *one* of the possibilities bears fruit and connects with the highly (or highest? -- that is THE question) potential spot on the ground.

    Possibilities finding potential
    making reality.
    • specialK16, on 08/08/2008, -1/+10Or..... maybe not.
      • JagPop, on 08/08/2008, -0/+1The essence of it is captured in the allegory of our "grounding fathers", George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. One chopped down a branchy fruit tree about which he could only tell the truth. The other flew a key and learned an honest lesson.

        Or...maybe not.
    • Lith25, on 08/08/2008, -0/+2It really is amazing. I never knew it searched for a path. I always thought it was just a big charge of electricity going to the ground in some random manner.

      Amazing.
      • amenic, on 08/08/2008, -0/+2It also has to take the pre-determined or connected or adjacent path back up into the cloud or sky.

        Extremely cool.

        Now the real question is - why haven't we seen this before?
    • jmccoubrey, on 08/08/2008, -0/+4a capture of the upward stroke

      http://img.skitch.com/20080808-eetf3xw4rnkxf4dqmj6 ...
    • ak420, on 08/08/2008, -0/+3Actually, what is happening is the negatively charged particles from the bottom of the cloud (the positive ones go to the top and the negative ones at the bottom) are meeting a buildup of positively charged particles from the ground, so in effect the electrons from the ground are going up to meet the electrons from the cloud.
      • mgmirkin, on 08/08/2008, -1/+4Erm, electrons are negatively charged. If you're saying negatives meet positives, then you probably meant electrons from the cloud meet IONS from the ground?

        Anyway, there's nothing especially controversial about all this.

        Is tarts with electrostatics (a cloud of more-or-less stationary charges in the cloud and a cloud of more-or-less stationary charges in the ground) and a voltage gradient (electric field). At some point the field strength gets so high that the charges begin to flow despite the insulating air. The dielectric (the atmosphere is generally an insulator) breaks down (ionizes) along the path of the leader strokes in quantized steps (approximately). You can see that the majority of the brightness of a leader stroke is concentrated at the tip. Likely this ionized the atmosphere immediately adjacent to it, allowing the discharge to continue propagating. Once a stepped leader from the cloud encounters an upward streamer from the ground, or the ground itself, the circuit is completed and a conductive, fully ionized channel is available. At that point, you get the return stroke from the ground to the cloud. There may then be several return strokes, as the charges neutralize. At some point, the charges equalize sufficiently that the current flow stops, and neutral atmosphere rushes back in to insulate the clouds of charge.

        It's just really cool to see it all in slow motion...

        Regards,
        ~Michael
      • ak420, on 08/09/2008, -0/+1Yeah, thanks, that is what I meant. I had this explained to me a long time ago, although I do know that electrons are negatively charged. Thanks for explaining it in more detail!
    • StormTroopr, on 08/08/2008, -0/+4Your mom captured my upward stroke.
  • linksus, on 08/08/2008, -6/+9For one, Its not mindblowling. My mind is still intact.
    AND!
    Why has this made it to the frontpage TWICE one after another!
    • JagPop, on 08/08/2008, -0/+2Two overlaping realities met?
    • Frost9999, on 08/08/2008, -0/+22It's trying to find the shortest route to the front page.
  • damntourists, on 08/08/2008, -3/+1whoa holy *****
  • ravis31, on 08/08/2008, -7/+1Any idea which camera was used?
    Casio EX-F1?
    • i4ybrid, on 08/08/2008, -4/+4It's in the description. Read it.
      • ravis31, on 08/09/2008, -0/+1Did you read the description?
        It says "I'm not sure exactly how fast this camera is, but it's got to be shooting at a speed faster than the Casio EX-F1 can shoot at"
        That's why i was not sure!
  • rento, on 08/08/2008, -8/+1kapow!!!!!! woooooooooooooooooshhh
    It's so exciting to watch you cant guess who wins the race until last frame.What a prize for the winner.
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 100 of 121 discussions
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.