*promote

This is most likely the most AMAZING filament eruption to be caught on video. It is caused by a little process called magnetic reconnection. It's a little process that gives us our solar flares, these filaments, CMEs (Coronal Mass Ejections), auroras, and the possible potential for very dangerous radiation storms every few millennium--give or take a few. Basically, plasma flows along these field lines of magnetism. When things get out of hand, then those field lines distort and change and all of a sudden things get very dangerous (AND sometimes beautiful). The faster the magnetic field changes the faster the particles will travel making them more and more dangerous as the events unfold fast enough giving them more energy (kinetic & heat), which in turn if directed at us means it penetrates much further into our protective field and anything outside of the field, crispy--in the shredded DNA, cells, you name it sense.

Occasionally, Earth's magnetic field breaks down a bit (if I remember why correctly it was a certain "sequence" within our magnetic shield and it reacts badly with the Sun's--don't quote me though, I really need to look it back up again it was a very long time ago I remember this from), if a large solar flare directed towards Earth ever happened before Earth had enough time to fully build back it's strength we would be FAR more in trouble than usual, but this would be a rare event. Usually what happens is that the charged particles follow Earth's magnetic lines and go to the poles, which is the one place on Earth where you do suffer the most radiation from the Sun (basically wherever the poles are as the plasma follows the polarity or "field lines" of Earth's magnetic field). It's also why the closer you are to the poles the better your view is of the aurora as the particles streaming in, if there is a sufficient quantity moving very fast (the more energy, especially kinetic--speed, the farther the penetration into the atmosphere and the lower the aurora becomes visible), will enter the atmosphere and begin to be absorbed by various elements that our atmosphere is compromised of like Nitrogen.

Here's a quick explanation. Basically, the particles collide with atoms of molecules/elements or anything in the higher atmosphere, exciting their electrons into higher energy levels, which is known fundamentally in science as quantum leap/atomic transition/electron transition it's one of the atom's most fundamental abilities dealing with "extra energy" being pushed into a system that wants balance (this is a very common process that happens ALL DAY long, EVERYWHERE around you; it transfers photons essentially--pure energy--BUT, what is the energy in the form of as it's energy level makes it do very many different things; you could see things, what you consider the normal range of light--it's EXACTLY how light goes THROUGH a window--it doesn't go through the window it is transferred via the atoms from one side to the next, this is ALSO why people are trying to get invisibility to work as it just might; HEAT is another one that is transferred all the time--it literally radiates outwards from our bodies and then we are surrounded by excited electrons and the infrared range of light we are putting out, the heat of a human body...or any animal; this goes on and on, it happens everywhere and as I said ALL-THE-TIME, it's perhaps one of the most critical processes and abilities of the atom and how photons also transfer their energy between areas in a direction; a little off-topic information for those that don't realize how much is going on, everywhere, all the time, at any given second...it's a complicated, but beautiful world)), and making them give off light that we see when the charge they've taken on finally returns the molecule/element's electrons to their normal orbits in the electron shell; the color depends on what molecule/element was being bombarded and how much energy was involved from the particle that hit it). This of course transfers all the energy that those particles had and we get a nice light show.

/I thought I'd fill my promote with something useful; ...on why these happen...
//edit-For a little more clarity, grammar and a bit more information that I hope some will appreciate if it helps anyone learn something or atleast go look up some of this and learn some on their own; taking an interest in science, it's one of the most important things in the world that we have.
///Spreading science is just as important; it's the one literal thing we do/use that has ever allowed us to deal with the worst problems we have: fear, pain, death, disease, sorrow, despair, ignorance, etc... Science IS the light in the dark. It is our best hope for mankind's continued existence and a good life. It is the single most important activity we now do as a group; it's our savior from us and what's out there...

I can't believe he threw out the filament! What sort of guacamole is it without the filament???

Congratulations! Your video, Bet you didn't know this about lightbulb filaments!, has reached the #1 spot in the current Top 15 New Videos listing. This is a very difficult thing to accomplish but you managed to pull it off. For your contribution you have been awarded 2 Power Points.

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>> ^raverman:
This definitely goes on the list of things mankind would be totally unable to make after the apocalypse.


Unless this guy survived...

>> ^grinter:

1500C while pumping Hydrogen gas over it? Does that sound like a bad idea to anyone else?
Do they do that in an oxygen free environment or something?


Actually they never said it didn't burn off--maybe they don't use that much. Could be just to keep the heat even. But, yeah I'd have to find out about the fabrication process.

This is what the sift used to be like, before the invasion of cats, fails, and farts. Oh, the good old days. >> ^kceaton1:

I'd like to see more of these on the sift, it was definitely worth the time. Quite a bit of information in a short piece like this.

>> ^raverman:

This definitely goes on the list of things mankind would be totally unable to make after the apocalypse.


Totally! I want something like Wikipedia except full of the accumulated knowledge of how to actually manufacture stuff. I have to imagine that so much of this engineering knowledge gets lost.

Your video, Bet you didn't know this about lightbulb filaments!, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'bulb, filament, tungsten, ductile, engineering, the engineer guy' to 'incandescent, bulb, filament, tungsten, ductile, engineering, the engineer guy' - edited by kronosposeidon

Maybe its my OCD showing, but that long filament thing kinda bugs me... just doesn't seem to "go" with the rest of the animal...

... I'll be over here washing my hands over and over...

Many congratulations Cari. You're one of the threads I have left in this place, but a mighty powerful golden filament it is. You're great.

Very cool. If you pause the video at for instance 3:20 or 5:00, you can discern the Sun's magnetic field lines as vague filaments in the corona. This is because the charged plasma particles in the corona are unable to travel transverse to the field lines.

This is also the best live footage I've ever seen of a solar prominence.

"The (unfortunately, largely forgotten and still extremely under-appreciated) Serbian inventor, genius, and true scientist Dr. Nikola Tesla invented the fluorescent light bulb (as well as Neon lighting and several other lighting inventions). At the time, his invention was largely ignored. In fact his fluorescent light bulbs were vastly superior than the ones we have now: they were far more energy efficient due to the lack of ballast transformers and capacitors, they needed no starter capacitor, and lasted literally forever as there was no filament necessary and nothing was consumed. Tesla is however better known for his monumental invention of AC current generators, motors and energy transmission systems - which to this day still power the entire civilized world in exactly the same way. As with almost all Tesla's inventions, his fluorescent bulb was brilliant in its simplicity, durability and efficiency, as well as easy to produce. Tesla also invented numerous improvements on the common (and extremely inefficient) incandescent light bulb for which Edison commonly is credited, although even that is disputed - Edison clearly could not stand in the shadow of the likes of Tesla and Edison is known to have shrewdly taken credit for many inventions he in fact did not produce himself."

Kinda makes you think doesnt it?

Composite structures are different from what we usually see in planes, which are "monococque" structures of a frame and stressed skin. These are hand-laid fibers of a tensile strength higher than that of steel, embedded in epoxy, vacuum bagged, then catalytically cured or cured in ovens. Sometimes a single filament of tremendous length is wrapped continuously around the parts, providing even higher strength. It has nothing to do with robots. More like building a boat or musical instrument or weaving or something. I think it's almost always done with careful hands and experienced eyes, and yes, often by guys in old concert t'shirts.

Yeah, a robot can stuff a board with chips, or spot-weld a chassis, or be your cruel master, but robots are dumb. They can't see, feel, intuit, craft. Believe me, the human hand is not something to be underestimated.

Plus, this is the second one. They've already proved that it works. So there. And you all want to give these nice folks jobs away to our cold hearted overlords. For shame.

Robot walks into a bar,
Orders a drink, lays down a bill,
Bartender says 'we don't serve robots',
robot says 'No, but someday you will'.

-D. Berman

Bottles of dasani or aquafina in my dorm fridge used to do this every single time I opened one. It doesn't freeze the entire mass of water, but makes enough tiny filaments of water crystals to suddenly turn the fluid opaque. The structure of the resulting ice is like raw wool or cotton.