Firing the Lorentz Plasma Cannon
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN users suggest it to anyone who enjoys extreme high-voltage projects and big capacitor-bank discharges.
What it is
LightningOnDemand revives a pulsed Lorentz plasma cannon, using modern capacitors to extend its range and increase the delivered energy. It is a high-voltage, high-current hobby demonstration.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2025 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Recommends 00N8 · 2025-04 · on “First Successful Lightning Triggering and Guiding Using a Drone”
The future is now: Check out Lightning On Demand, [LINK] (Tesla tower approach & scientific motivations) & [this video] (capacitor driven Lorentz plasma cannon demo)
Recommends bigiain · 2025-09 · on “High-power microwave defeats drone swarm”
You might enjoy Lightning On Demand's Lorentz Cannon: [this video] I does seem like a lot of stuff is needed. He's got 2 tons of capacitors in a stack 20 feet tall to get around 35 feet of range. He although he says: "I was surprised at just how fast the plasma cannon range scaled with increasing drive voltage and how much explosive force the shock wave can deliver to target the data suggests that a plasma cannon with just a 30t high Marx Tower could achieve 1/4 mile range" I know military contractors will have 3 or more orders of magnitude more money to throw at their technology demos, but I suspect there's some cold hard physics which shows it's totally impractical to defend anything more then
Recommends bigiain · 2025-09 · on “High-power microwave defeats drone swarm”
> Capacitors are a terrible energy source. They're a pretty good way of storing energy in a way you can deliver it _really really_ fast. Sure, not in a way your carefully designed electronic circuits can make use of it, but if you need a really really big ZAP! capacitors are a reasonable option. After all, clouds and dirt are not the most efficient choice for capacitor plates, and air is not an ideal dielectric, but lightning goes ZAP! quite satisfyingly. As I posted elsewhere here,you might enjoy Lightning On Demand's Lorentz Cannon: [this video]
Cites lbeckman314 · 2025-11 · on “Advent of Code on the Z-Machine”
This Z-Machine is also featured in 'Firing the Lorentz Plasma Cannon' [1] by Lightning on Demand [2]! [1] [this video] [2] [LINK]
Cites perpetuallunch · 2026-07 · on “A.I. Companies Are Recruiting Electricians and Carpenters by the Thousands”
One cannot simply bring up Veritasium without also honouring his arch nemesis ElectroBOOM. [LINK] Others that deserve a mention: styropyro [LINK] The Angry Pixie herder, Uncle Bumblefuck aka AvE: [LINK] And that guy with the multi gigawatt 150,000 volt Lorentz Cannon: [this video] I’m sure I forgot someone? AlphaPhoenix’s response to Veritasium: [LINK]