# Mythbusters says that humans can't duplicate the voltage of lightning, is this true? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 9, 2006, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mythbusters-says-that-humans-cant-duplicate-the-voltage-of-lightning-is-this-true/347662 "2006-03-09T07:03:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mythbusters-says-that-humans-cant-duplicate-the-voltage-of-lightning-is-this-true/347662/1 "2006-03-09T07:03:06Z")
They said lightning can reach 100 million volts. Man cannot replicate this? I’m sure that amperage will enter into this discussion sooner or later. So we can split atoms, but can’t duplicate lightning? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mythbusters-says-that-humans-cant-duplicate-the-voltage-of-lightning-is-this-true/347662/2 "2006-03-09T07:14:54Z")
> [@dnooman](#): > > They said lightning can reach 100 million volts. Man cannot replicate this? Not so far. The highest voltage yet attained for current electricity is 5 million volts: [ > [@](#): > > The highest electrical potential ever produced by man, over 5,000,000 volts, has been achieved in the laboratory of Dr. Gregory Breit and Dr. M.A. Tuve at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. ]([http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn\_arc98/4\_25\_98/timeline.htm](http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc98/4_25_98/timeline.htm)) Or 32 million volts for an electrostatic potential: [ > [@](#): > > This month marks the twentieth anniversary of a record set at ORNL that still stands. In May 1979, during a test of the Lab’s just-installed tandem electrostatic accelerator, the “tandem” generated an electrostatic voltage of 32 million volts. This remains the highest voltage ever produced by a man-made device. ]([http://www.ornl.gov/info/reporter/no3/labnotes.htm](http://www.ornl.gov/info/reporter/no3/labnotes.htm)) ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mythbusters-says-that-humans-cant-duplicate-the-voltage-of-lightning-is-this-true/347662/3 "2006-03-09T07:22:30Z")
Wow! What about maximum amperage? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mythbusters-says-that-humans-cant-duplicate-the-voltage-of-lightning-is-this-true/347662/4 "2006-03-09T07:30:39Z")
> [@dnooman](#): > > What about maximum amperage? [Looks like about 20 million amps:](http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/702-1.html) > [@](#): > > Twenty million amps of current, released from a bank of capacitors over 100 nsec and sent into a cage of wires, is converted at Sandia’s Z facility into 1.8 mega-joules of soft-x-ray energy, with a peak power of 200 tera-watts. ---
**Author:** ![Arjuna34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Arjuna34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arjuna34)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mythbusters-says-that-humans-cant-duplicate-the-voltage-of-lightning-is-this-true/347662/5 "2006-03-09T13:38:06Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > [Looks like about 20 million amps:](http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/702-1.html) That’s pretty impressive! According to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning), > [@](#): > > An average bolt of negative lightning carries a current of 30 kiloamperes, transfers a charge of 5 coulombs, has a potential difference of about 100 megavolts and dissipates 500 megajoules (enough to light a 100 watt lightbulb for 2 months). The Sandia pulse is around 20 megajoules (200 TW for 100 ns), so still 25 times less total energy than an average lightning bolt. The current doesn’t seem like a problem - 30kA is relatively easy to produce, but not at the same time as 100MV. Figuring P = V x I, the Sandia pulse voltage is 200TW / 20MA = 10MV. Of course, a bolt of lightning usually last for more than 100ns, too (actually about 100 uS according to Wikipedia). Arjuna34 ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mythbusters-says-that-humans-cant-duplicate-the-voltage-of-lightning-is-this-true/347662/6 "2006-03-09T15:12:38Z")
As anyone who has watched _Back to the Future_ knows, lightning produces 1.21 gigawatts of electricity. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mythbusters-says-that-humans-cant-duplicate-the-voltage-of-lightning-is-this-true/347662/7 "2006-03-09T15:45:17Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > [Looks like about 20 million amps:](http://www.aip.org/pnu/2004/split/702-1.html) I don’t recall the amperage but it was pretty high in 1958 when Sandia Labs exhibit at the Atoms for Peace Conference in Geneva Switzerland sent a high current through a SINGLE TURN coil to induce a plasma in the fairly short tube. The one turn coil consisted of a large semicircle of sheet copper with a wide tab at the center wrapped around the tube. Capacitors the size of 55 gal. drums were loacated around the semi-circumference to feed the high current at the time of discharge. Sunded like a lightning bold when discharge occurred. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mythbusters-says-that-humans-cant-duplicate-the-voltage-of-lightning-is-this-true/347662/8 "2006-03-09T16:13:31Z")
I’m not an expert on lightning, but for some reason I have it in my head that a typical lightning bolt is many millions of volts and a few hundred thousand amps. In my mind, a typical lightning bolt would be something like 20 million volts and maybe 100 thousand amps. Since the amperage value that I have rattling around in my head is an order of magnitude off from the wikipedia cite, does anyone have any other cites? I’m not arguing with the numbers, but if I’m going to stick some new numbers into my head I’d prefer that they come from something more definitive than wikipedia. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mythbusters-says-that-humans-cant-duplicate-the-voltage-of-lightning-is-this-true/347662/9 "2006-03-09T16:42:34Z")
Is the difficulty that we’re unable to produce the voltage by any means, or is it that we don’t have the means (ie: insulation) to contain it before it finds its way to ground? My money’s on insufficient insulation, or in the case of these wacky-high voltages, insufficient air distance. Lightning’s coming at us from clouds that are usually 4+ miles up, so we’d probably need to have a “lightning lab” somehow suspended 4 miles over the ground to attempt to create similar voltages.