3 ms·
Is this right? According to google, average lightning bolt is 10^8 joules = ~277 kWh, so closer to 9 homes?
by virgildotcodes 4y ago
Is this right? According to google, average lightning bolt is 10^8 joules = ~277 kWh, so closer to 9 homes?
- Gracana 4y agoCan't be right at all. Photo flash capacitors store hundreds of joules, and if you short them out all you get is a fairly exciting *pow*. Lightning strikes light trees on fire, melt sand, vaporize metal..
- virgildotcodes 4y agoI think he meant 10^8 instead of 108.
- Gracana 4y agoOh! Of course.
- chrismorgan 4y ago10⁸ J = 27.7̅ kWh
- virgildotcodes 4y agoYou’re right, and I made a mistake. Looks like the average lightning bolt carries 1 billion joules, so 10^9, not 10^8, which does put it at 277 kWh.
- jameshart 4y agoSo an average lightning bolt is a gigajoule or so. These aren’t average lightning bolts. And OP’s comparison point of the energy used by a house in a day seems arbitrary when we are talking about an event that lasts seconds. If your 30kWh number is reasonable for a house’s daily energy usage, in the 17 second duration of this record breaking lightning bolt a house uses about 21 kJ. So even if the bolt itself only moves that estimated 1gJ of energy, it’s enough electricity to power about 47000 homes for those 17 seconds. These are not ‘modest’ amounts of energy by any stretch.
- Vladimof 4y agoAnd that 'megaflash' lasted longer then a usual lightning bolt, I think (was definitely bigger too)