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Hurricane coffee table   (+13)  [vote for, against]
It's an altar of destruction!

Using liquids of appropriate specific temperatures and densities, design a hurricane in a box: A real hurricane driven by heat differentials, capable of condensing something white out of something blue, with all the same wind effects. Lightning is a big bonus. Heat the bottom of the box to keep it running. (hopefully you won't have to heat it too much)

Now make the sides and top of the box transparent and decorate the bottom of the box to look like someplace.

Put it in your living room.
-- Voice, Sep 04 2011

What [mitxela] is talking about. http://www.flickr.c...eonexus/3207659445/
Manual operation though. [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 06 2011]

umm for [FT]...? http://www.merriam-...ictionary/lightning
[xandram, Sep 06 2011]

Disaster coffee table Disaster_20coffee_20table
Thanks for prompting this. [BunsenHoneydew, Sep 10 2011]

How to make your own cloud chamber http://home.cern/st...r-own-cloud-chamber
[Voice, Feb 08 2016]

This is the coolest thing I ever didn't see (in this moment). Bun [+]
-- Grogster, Sep 05 2011


+ I think you can make it like a snow globe and use a mini Van DeGraaff generator for the lightning!
-- xandram, Sep 05 2011


I have actually seen this as a giant glass globe which had, I think, white and blue liquids of the same density that didn't mix. You would spin the globe and then stop it, and all the white clouds would swirl about in very convincing patterns.
-- mitxela, Sep 05 2011


Make this happen, please.
-- Myewze, Sep 06 2011


Creating your temperature gradient could be problematic. If you think of it as a glorified lava lamp, you need height in order to get your cooling effect and then you need to add some machinery to give your storm some artificial spin as well, so your table might end up more like a large altar.
-- DrBob, Sep 06 2011


What if I freeze the top, Dr?
-- Voice, Sep 06 2011


The heat flow rate can be managed by selecting fluids of low specific heat capacity. Unfortunately, this means low density fluids which are unlikely to give the motion characteristics you are looking for. Nice idea, probably not practical.
-- Twizz, Sep 06 2011


Waiting for an explanation of "lightning".
-- FlyingToaster, Sep 06 2011


ooh, I want a large altar / coffee table!!
-- xandram, Sep 06 2011


A map display at the bottom lets you figure out, through occasional breaks in the clouds, just what's getting destroyed.
-- lurch, Sep 06 2011


Can we get lightning by electrically charging and insulating the top and by having a fluid solution that only conducts electricity when the molecules are aligned just so?
-- Voice, Sep 06 2011


You see, when someone mentions Hurricane coffee table, I immediately imagine a coffee table where the cups, table, chairs are screwed down, so that one could enjoy a nice cup of coffee regardless of an inconvenient breeze in one's breakfast lounge.

But this idea is far more practical.
-- Ling, Sep 07 2011


//Hurricane coffee table// Are they really running out of storm names already? We just started naming storms over here, and it only seems to be encouraging them.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 08 2016


[+] 5 years later and I've no clue what bad mood I must have been in to mfd it... [removed]. Though, I'm still waiting on how both lightning and hurricane are going to be achieved at the same time.
-- FlyingToaster, Feb 08 2016


Tesla coil? But some version of Lord Kelvin's Thunderstorm would be extra cool, if it could be powered by the hurricane somehow.
-- notexactly, Feb 09 2016


I will agree that the top of this table/box needs a cooling system, just as much as the base of this box needs a heating system.

As for lightning, there needs to be a substance added to the mix that can be ionized, but not TOO easily. An external voltage gradient could be applied to let charges accumulate at opposite points inside the box (the more different pairs of points, the better). After an appropriate time has passed, switching the polarity of the two points might result in a flash.
-- Vernon, Feb 09 2016


// a substance added to the mix that can be ionized, but not TOO easily. //

Methane ? A 9% concentration ?
-- 8th of 7, Feb 09 2016



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