Really silly question about lightning

[banquo's_bumble_puppy]

This is probably one of the silliest questions ever posed- could lightning strikes be somehow stored in a battery of some sort for later use? A REALLY big capacitor?

[Ronald Brak]

Technically yes it's possible. But it's not at all practical. Although lightning has enough energy to kill you, so does the electricity used to boil a cup of water. On another thread some intelligent person referred to it as making a machine that operated using the power of random gunshots.

[Frog march]

doesnt a lightning bold direct itself along the path of least resistance? If so would a capasitor be able to attract a lightning bold when it has the whole Earth's surface to use as a capasitor?

[Peter Wilson]

I thougt Ben Franklin did that...well, with a really small capacitor...a key in a jar, connectred to kite string, or something like that.

[hhEb09'1]

Technically yes it's possible. But it's not at all practical.

The voltage drop in the vertical is tremendous, something like a couple hundred volts from your head to your toes, but there is very little current. That leakage can be taken up in a large metal object that's insulated from the ground--if it has sat for a while and built up charge, touching it will kill you.

[Dragon Star]

This is probably one of the silliest questions ever posed-

Nah...that was definitely...

"...But, is it impossible?"

[Van Rijn]

This is probably one of the silliest questions ever posed- could lightning strikes be somehow stored in a battery of some sort for later use? A REALLY big capacitor?

In fact, lightning is due to the breakdown of the dielectric in a natural capacitor. Here's a nice little page on it:

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/electromag/java/lightning/