NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/comp/sys/hp48/7331

Text File | 1993-01-24 | 1.6 KB | 39 lines

Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp48
Path: sparky!uunet!ukma!bogus.sura.net!howland.reston.ans.net!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!doug.cae.wisc.edu!kolstad
From: [e-mail] (Joel Kolstad)
Subject: Lightning
Organization: U of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering
Date: 24 Jan 93 12:00:17 CST
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Lines: 29

This is ridiculously off the topic of this newsgroup, but it's not at all
argumentative, so some people might find it interesting anyway.  Here's a
little information about lightning:

-- Lightning hits in Earth 50 to 100 times a second, being produced by the
1900 thunderstorms now raging around the world.  (Averages here, of
course).

-- Lightning strokes may be several miles long but only as wide as a
finger.  Therefore, a human being struck looks almost identical to a human
not being in the "circuit" at all. :-)

-- Nearly 100 people are killed, and 250 are injured every year in the U.S.
This is more than the combined total for tornadoes and hurricanes.

-- The entire "bolt" of lightning lasts about a half second carrying an average
of 30,000 amps.  (Fun exercise for the reader: Assuming a simple geometric
distribution of the lightning charge, calculate how much energy is carried
by the bolt.)

-- The air around the bolt may heat to 33,000 deg. C (60,000 deg. F).

Nasty stuff, but I think that lightning storms are quite beautiful to
watch.  Just make sure that is doesn't strike _you_...

The above information all comes from that 2nd rate source of science
information, "Popular Science," February 1993.

                        ---Joel Kolstad