The figures of Lichtenberg are images produced by branched, arborescent electrical discharges, which sometimes form on the surface or inside insulating materials. The Lichtenberg figures are now also used as examples of fractals.
They are named after the German physicist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, who initially discovered and studied them. After producing a discharge of high voltage on a point of the surface of an insulating material, Lichtenberg made visible the arborescent radial patterns by means of colored powders. fixed on electrostatic charges. Then he pressed blank sheets of paper on the branched figures, which transferred them to the paper and allowed him to keep them. The Lichtenberg figures are now also used as examples of fractals.
