From Antonio F. Ranada
Keith Moffatt challenges the model of ball lightning by M. Soler, J. L.
Trueba and myself
(Letters, 17 October, p 54).
His main objection is that helicity conservation does not impede the
expansion process of the linked balls, so they must expand.
However, we do not claim that the ball does not expand. The tangling of the
magnetic lines does not impede the process, but it makes it much slower; the
expansion until the cooling begins is just a few per cent, hardly noticeable by
the witnesses.
Therefore, this cannot be an argument against the model. We maintain all our
conclusions.
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ranada@euemos.sim.ucm.es
