Re: Electricity again


Sorcerer wrote:
"tadchem" <thomas.davidson@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1155164237.258876.146800@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
|
| Sorcerer wrote:
|
| > It's all "amount, amount, amount". We have the technology to charge
| > a capacitor. Whilst I agree that it would be pointless, dangerous and
| > prohibitively expensive to capture Super Dooper Ultra High Voltage
| > for very little current, we regularly use much lower voltages at higher
| > current.
| > Power is measured in watt hours,
|
| No. That is *energy*. Power is in watts. The power of a lightning bolt
| is on the order of gigawatts, even if only for a fraction of a second.

Ok ;-) You were the one mentioning power, we do not store power, we
store energy.

One gigawatt for 1 microsecond is 1 kw/sec, which is 0.278 kWh.
I could run a 100 watt lighting bulb for 2.78 hours on the energy of
one lightning bolt. Not very useful.


Some numerical corrections. The *energy* of a lightning bolt is
typically a gigajoule, delivered over the course of something between
10 and 1000 usec, corresponding to a *power* of order one to a hundred
terawatts.

Four 100W light bulbs running continuously for a month consume about
the same energy as delivered by a lightning bolt, though of course at
much lower power.

PD

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Electricity again
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  • Re: Electricity again
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