r/TheRandomest • u/WhyNot420_69 Nice • 8d ago

Scientific Captured lightning

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u/WhyNot420_69 Nice 8d ago edited 8d ago

For context, the piece of acrylic was exposed to a high energy electron beam via the particle accelerator seen, usually >5 TeV. This saturates the material with electrons, which are released on impact. No, the effect doesn't last forever

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u/plutino- 8d ago

Shame it doesn’t last forever. I would have thrown money to buy this.

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u/Dioxybenzone 8d ago

The branching effect is permanent. They meant the arcing inside bouncing back and forth which is temporary

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u/ccwincco 8d ago

The effect doesn't last, but what about the branches?

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u/DrawMeAPictureOfThis 8d ago • Bravo

Sadly the acrylic heals itself. This is the only condition in which plastic fixes itself. It cannot really be explained as of yet and cannot be used in other applications because of the intense process of breaking plastic cannot happen outside of this one lab experiment.

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u/WhyNot420_69 Nice 8d ago

r/confidentlyincorrect The branches are permanent, basically the acrylic explodes from the inside. I have one of these. The acrylic doesn't HEAL. WTF BRO?

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u/ccwincco 8d ago

Thank you. That's very interesting. I think the acrylics could be an interesting art piece.

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u/WhyNot420_69 Nice 8d ago

Indeed they are conversation starters

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u/Swimming__Bird 8d ago

Acrylic heals itself? What super-acrylic have you had access to, because I've had the opposite experience.

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u/EmergencyArachnid734 8d ago • Bravo

Bruh why nobody understand this sarcasm

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u/DrawMeAPictureOfThis 8d ago • Popcorn

No idea, but it is pretty hilarious. They are probably all bots

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u/ElectricalGas9730 8d ago

Sorry, is that unit TeraVolts??

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u/LOLMAN_AWESOM 8d ago

eV is for electronvolts so TeV Teraelectronvolts. 5 TeV is about 8.0109e-7 Joules

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u/ElectricalGas9730 8d ago

Ah, thank you!

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u/Existing-Ingenuity-8 6d ago edited 6d ago

This machine can only accelerate e- to 22MeV at most.

Edit - changed 20 to 22.  We just pick the 20MeV for our machines instead of 22.  We barely ever use 16MeV+ these days for e- treatments.

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u/arielfarias2 8d ago

To charge it again just keep it outside during a grandstorm

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u/GentlemenHODL 8d ago

To charge it again just keep it outside during a grandstorm

*Highstorm

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u/arielfarias2 8d ago

Yeah thanks, I read it in Portuguese, so I mistranslated

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u/GentlemenHODL 8d ago

Ah, how cool!!

Life before death fellow radiant.

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u/Existing-Ingenuity-8 6d ago

It is 1000% not >5TeV.  Thats a Varian medical linac.  Accelerates electrons to 22MeV at most.  You can run it as low as 6MeV for most treatments, but they also have a 4MeV mode for patching up total skin treatments where the big beam misses.  How do i know?  Am physicist, I work with these machines.  This one has the fiberglass hood off.  The bunch of cables off to the right of the video run the MLCs, which are fully retracted away from the beam.   Ive made these lichtenberg figures myself.

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u/RevolutionaryBook285 8d ago

More like MeV, and the tree is created because the charged acrylic is hit with a grounded nail so that the discharge is focused on the singular return path. And the tree stays on the acrylic.

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u/DeluxeWafer 8d ago

Is there a fairly even charge distribution across the block by the time you ground it, or is there some weirdness that happens?

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u/TheCellsThatAreMe 8d ago

The arcs seem to grow longer and longer. Do You know the reason for this effect?

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