A pen that launches charged ions at the clueless victim, who inexplicably keeps getting electrostatic shocks from everything they touch.
All they feel is a slight breeze (from air molecules dragged along).
To avoid major karma, the operator should remember to be well grounded when firing.-- FlyingToaster, Apr 10 2017 I think you might be able to do this with a toroid ion gun. It would be incredibly cool. [+]-- MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 10 2017 I saw this earlier today and was sure it had been posted here before. I am back, later today (hmm… actually tomorrow), to state this without having looked for any evidence in the interval.-- notexactly, Apr 11 2017 Well, I did the same amount of due diligence that I usually do, despite which I'm gonna claim 'deja vu' on your part.-- FlyingToaster, Apr 11 2017 It would be quite fun to prank faithful faith-healer followers with one of these. How fast would the miracle dollars fly?
Ooh that gives me a money-making idea...
"It was like this small surge of energy I felt as soon as I touched him..."-- RayfordSteele, Apr 12 2017 I no longer feel as if this has been posted before, for some reason.-- notexactly, Apr 12 2017 Combine with multiple source, designed sonic interference and miracles can happen.-- wjt, Apr 13 2017 // I think you might be able to do this with a toroid ion gun. It would be incredibly cool. [+]
— MaxwellBuchanan,
I saw this earlier today and was sure it had been posted here before. I am back, later today (hmm… actually tomorrow), to state this without having looked for any evidence in the interval.
— notexactly
Well, I did the same amount of due diligence that I usually do, so I'm gonna claim 'deja vu' on your part.
— FlyingToaster//
I posted a vortex-ring Van de Graaff launcher idea like a week or two weeks ago.It just got fishbones and no comments so I deleted it because I figured my physics on the subject must have been shit.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Apr 13 2017 Okay, I vaguely remember that: I didn't understand it, so it was on the "wait for enlightenment" list. The "due diligence" remark was tongue-in-cheek.-- FlyingToaster, Apr 13 2017 2fries, It seems I was off HB for a week or two, otherwise, I would have given you a croissant and asked why the fishbones with no discussion. As it is, right now we are prohibited from giving anything of that sort, till the end of Passover when we can discuss pastry again.-- pashute, Apr 13 2017 Sometimes expecting complete consistency in the halfbakery in terms of idea judgment is simply asking for too much.-- RayfordSteele, Apr 13 2017 It's not that. I'm just trying to figure out things I can't really visualise because they aren't tangible so I've never played with them.
So it was a bit of a stretch to think it might be possible to trap electricity in a torus ring and maybe even make it amplify as it travels.
One of the things I've always loved about this place is that if an idea is not plausible it will be shredded, expanded on, and rebuilt on eighteen different levels... just because it can be.
That idea dropped like a stone, so I figured...
...anyway, tornados make lightening. If you could make a tornado full of charged ferrous particles wrap around and eat its own tail then the differences between its temperature, humidity, and electrical potential with the surrounding air should continue to make it an airborne van de graaff machine and a rudimentary Leyden jar capacitor until it discharges.
Is that right?-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Apr 13 2017 I remember that I deleted my "sport whaling" concept because of an excess of bones. I regret it. Sport whaling, we never knew thee. My "Blue Haiku" concept just mysteriously disappeared from the HB. Mysterious...
I say get that Vandyvortex back a churning, 2fry. Don't let the bones get you down.
As regards this idea I am delighted. There is nothing better than a static shock war; feet scuffling, fingers flying. I have to think those ion shooting air fresheners would be known to do this if it were possible, no?-- bungston, Apr 14 2017 random, halfbakery