Timeline for How many photons are emitted by a lightning strike?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
23 events
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| Jun 26, 2019 at 12:32 | comment | added | Árpád Szendrei | @JMac thank you so much! | |
| Jun 26, 2019 at 12:32 | history | edited | Árpád Szendrei | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jun 26, 2019 at 12:22 | comment | added | JMac | "This makes between 10.6 and 31.2*e^27 photons." This wording and notation is... confusing at best. Are you saying at the lower end it can release 10.6 photons, or 10.6 * e^27 photons? Also, when you say *e^27, that can be very confusing, and I assume you don't actually mean that. The reads as 31.2 * ~2.71828 ^ 27; while presumably you wanted to show scientific notation, which would either be 31.2e27 or 31.2 * 10^27. The e notation is used when you can't show the exponent symbol or fit scientific notation. | |
| Jun 26, 2019 at 11:47 | history | edited | Árpád Szendrei | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jun 26, 2019 at 11:39 | history | undeleted | Árpád Szendrei | ||
| Jun 25, 2019 at 21:14 | history | deleted | Árpád Szendrei | via Vote | |
| Jun 25, 2019 at 21:14 | comment | added | user79161 | @ÁrpádSzendrei I just checked that page. Not to start argue but, that page itself did not mention anywhere 2 eV, not in one of the 41 instances of occurence of 2 in number. If it has a reference to some other site, please quote that instead of making it this inconvenient to verify the information that you have presented here. | |
| Jun 25, 2019 at 21:12 | history | edited | Árpád Szendrei | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jun 25, 2019 at 21:10 | comment | added | Árpád Szendrei | @EmilioPisanty but for the photons there cannot be since the question asks for photons in the bolt. There are electrons in the bolt. This could just be a theoretical number, nothing to do with the reality where electrons make up the bolt. | |
| Jun 25, 2019 at 21:09 | comment | added | G. Smith | “But let’s disregard that.” Let’s not! Otherwise the calculation is meaningless. | |
| Jun 25, 2019 at 21:08 | comment | added | Árpád Szendrei | @EmilioPisanty I got the reference for the energy of the bolt en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvesting_lightning_energy | |
| Jun 25, 2019 at 21:08 | history | edited | Árpád Szendrei | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jun 25, 2019 at 21:05 | comment | added | Emilio Pisanty | ... and just in case it wasn't obvious, saying "I know what follows is wrong, but I'm going to keep it anyway" is not a solution. We shouldn't have to be telling you any of this. | |
| Jun 25, 2019 at 21:04 | history | edited | Árpád Szendrei | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jun 25, 2019 at 21:02 | comment | added | Emilio Pisanty | @user79161 no, that's not the case -- the 2eV figure for visible light is easily checked. The problem is that this answer provides the unjustified figure of ~1 GJ for the total energy, and the unjustified assumption that all of that 1 GJ goes to EM radiation (as opposed to other energy-dissipation channels, including heating of the lightning track and acoustic energy among others). Without reliable sources for both of those claims (or edits to this answer should they turn out to be wrong -- hint: this is likely the case) this answer is unusable. | |
| Jun 25, 2019 at 21:01 | comment | added | G. Smith | The bolt is composed of electrons. They happen to produce some photons. Lightning is mainly electricity, not light, as Benjamin Franklin understood. | |
| Jun 25, 2019 at 20:50 | comment | added | user79161 | @ÁrpádSzendrei and all that EmilioPisanty is asking you to do is to give a reliable source to support your assumption of 2 eV. | |
| Jun 25, 2019 at 20:43 | comment | added | Árpád Szendrei | @EmilioPisanty am I wrong that he is asking about how many photons are inside the bolt when it is created? | |
| Jun 25, 2019 at 20:40 | comment | added | Emilio Pisanty | You're neglecting the (likely substantial) energy that ends up as acoustic energy as well as thermal energy in the atmosphere and the ground. Without a well-referenced claim that those are negligible (and indeed without a suitable reference for the ~GJ figure for the energy content) this answer is unusable. | |
| Jun 25, 2019 at 20:36 | comment | added | Árpád Szendrei | @EmilioPisanty correct, though, I needed some average wavelength, otherwise can't really give a calculation, I assumed visible wavelength. It could be done with other average wavelengths too. | |
| Jun 25, 2019 at 20:35 | history | edited | Árpád Szendrei | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jun 25, 2019 at 20:28 | comment | added | Emilio Pisanty | You're assuming, without any evidence or referenced sources, that the totality of the energy ends up as light, which is clearly incorrect. | |
| Jun 25, 2019 at 20:17 | history | answered | Árpád Szendrei | CC BY-SA 4.0 |