Re: lightning rod question

From: Edward Green (spamspamspam3_at_netzero.com)
Date: 10/24/04 

Date: 24 Oct 2004 07:16:26 -0700

timothy42b@aol.com (TimR) wrote in message news:<87af0be7.0410240256.5ea16ad6@posting.google.com>...

> Back in engineering school one of the professors was famous for
> studying lightning. I recall him saying #10 wire was perfectly
> adequate, that we had to remember the wave form. A lightning stoke is
> a damped sinusoid, it is not like trying to pass 30,000 Amperes DC
> through a wire.

That comment doesn't make much sense to me. What's waveform got to do
with it? What matters is power dissipation.

Or I guess that's what you are suggesting: the pulse is short enough
that much higher instantaneous powers can be tolerated than at steady
state. Why didn't you just come out and say that!? ;-)