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This massive 15 x 20 x 2 inch sculpture was created during our Fall 2013 Lichtenberg Run. The interior of the specimen was charged up to 2.5 million volts by first passing it through a 5 million electron volt (MeV) electron beam, CAREFULLY flipping over the charged specimen, and then passing it through the beam once again. The accelerator injected trillions of excess electrons into the acrylic, creating two invisible layers of intense electrical charge. Each charge layer was located about one-half inch below the large flat surfaces. When fully charged, the potential on each of the charge layers was about negative 2.5 million volts relative to the outer surfaces of the specimen (which were at approximately ground potential).

The lower charge layer was then manually discharged by lightly poking the surface of the acrylic with a grounded metal point. This created a small crack inside the acrylic that allowed almost of the trapped charge to rush out of the specimen with a brilliant flash and a loud BANG that lasted less than 500 billionths of a second! Because of the large amount of electrical energy stored in the internal electrical field, charged specimens of this size are treated with utmost respect. After the main lightning-like discharge, hundreds of secondary discharges flash inside the specimen as small pockets of residual charge flash to the newly-created discharge paths. The frequency of secondary discharges slowly decrease over several minutes, but some discharges have been observed over 30 minutes after the main discharge.

This beautiful specimen is now on permanent display at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry's "Numbers in Nature" exhibit as an example of a branching fractal:
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This video was captured by fellow "Spark Whisperers" Heidi Baumgartner and Todd Johnson on 11/15/13.

For more information about Captured Lightning sculptures (Lichtenberg Figures) and more information about their history and the underlying physics, please see our other videos or visit our web site:
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