I have heard about ball lightning many times. Do any of you know what it is or what causes it?

Or, have you seen it?

http://www.amasci.com/weird/unusual/bl.html

Im not sure if this is actually related or not, but...

 

 

As children, me and my brother found a group of wires strung together and decided it would be fun to see what would happen if we stuck different wires into the plug socket. Thankfully, neither of us were hurt, but in an instant of placing another wire into the socket (we already had a few in there) the light went out and what looked like a glowing ball flew across the room. The plug socket had a permanent black mark around it where it had been burnt.

that sounds like a chunk of molten metal (spark) went flying, mains electricity voltages and frequency alone aren`t sufficient to create a plasma (ball lightening).

you were lucky that thing didn`t hit you though, both you AND the socket would have had a little black mark!

that sounds like a chunk of molten metal (spark) went flying, mains electricity voltages and frequency alone aren`t sufficient to create a plasma (ball lightening).

 

Maybe. The problem is that I searched and searched, but I couldn't find any evidence of it afterwards. It looked like it had hit the wall on the other side of the room, but the wall looked just fine. I couldn't find anything on the floor either. Could the molten metal really have been so hot that it burned away into gas?

No! It would have to get hotter.

That's why I wonder.

you wouldn`t have found it

the entire particle was probably no more than a grain of sand in size, but looked alot bigger because of it`s brightness.

a bit like when arc welding, the majority of sparks wont even leave a mark on paper and after several hours worth of sparks (hot metal) you`de expect to ankle deep in metal, when all you`ll get will be like a fine grey dust coating with the odd little metal ball in it. and yes it can get that hot it turns into gas, part of that black mark will be vaporised metal.

Well then, you have solved one of the mysteries of my strange childhood. Thank you!

not a prob, I only know it as fact coz I did similar myself too

I just then went on to find out what was actualy happening

When I was about 5 I took apart a lamp and put Live and neutral together. Now I could have been imagining this because I was only 5 but a purple/blue sphere expanded outward tell the circuit breaker flipped then collapsed. Got any idea what that was?

Probably a giant spark that expanded like a Jacob's Ladder.

did it look like this: http://www.yt2095.net/experiments/picon3.JPG

 

but in a violet/blue color?

Ya sorta but it was more of a sphere. Did you use a pole pig for that arc? I just got my new neon sign transformer today for a tesla coil.

 

To be honest im not sure I remember what it looks like.