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A comment on A lightning bolt would be worth only about a nickel (2015). Parent comment

Re:A lightning bolt would be worth only about a nickel (2015) by praptak on Thursday June 23, 2022 @04:11AM (#31846339)
If you really mean gigawatts (unit of power), then you have to multiply it by the time period when this peak power is reached to get the energy output. Lightning bolts have very short durations, tens of microseconds.

Let's be generous and give it 1 millisecond. 1 millisecond times 1 gigawatt is 1 million joules, which is the estimate that the article gives.

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Re:A lightning bolt would be worth only about a nickel (2015) by peterpost2 on Thursday June 23, 2022 @04:14AM (#31846357)
Woosh, he is making a back to the future reference
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Re:A lightning bolt would be worth only about a nickel (2015) by ww_wpg on Thursday June 23, 2022 @09:34AM (#31848891)
Well, today I learned something about physics and pop culture.
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Re:A lightning bolt would be worth only about a nickel (2015) by martin_a on Thursday June 23, 2022 @09:41AM (#31848988)
> Lightning bolts have very short durations

That is why you have to hit the cable at a very specific time. It's not that hard.

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Re:A lightning bolt would be worth only about a nickel (2015) by trelane on Thursday June 23, 2022 @05:22PM (#31855319)
martin_a, or marty_m? Hmmmm....
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