Posts Tagged ‘electricity’
Question Asked: How Many Volts of Electricity Are In A Bolt of Lightning?
The average lightning bolt produces about 900,000,000 volts of electricity. Some bigger strikes are believed to have produced up to twice that amount.
Obviously, this is a scientific guess, based on years of research. It’s near impossible to measure an actual lightning bolt.
900 million volts of electricity is enough to power an entire neighborhood of homes for roughly one week.
Question Asked: What is the Greatest Invention of the 20th Century?
Another entirely subjective question, thanks for asking CJ.
My answer would be Tivo, however, that’s not the “real” answer, despite the fact that many people would agree.
The “greatest invention” of the 20th century according to the first four results pages of a Google search, would be either electricity, or the automobile. Many lesser trusted resources (namely Yahoo! answers, and Wikipedia) would say things such as; computers, mobile phones, and television.
However, upon further examination, neither electricity or the automobile were invented in the 20th century. Let’s examine:
Electricity wasn’t invented, ever. It was discovered. Electricity is produced naturally on earth, and is not a man made invention. Therefore, it doesn’t qualify. Oh, and the first known instance of electricity happened as early 600BC, when Thales of Miletus wrote about how rubbing amber created an attraction. This is known today, as static electricity. The word “electric” was first used in 1600 by Richard Gilbert, a British scientist. “Electricity” comes from the Greek word for “amber”. Fitting, eh? It wasn’t until 1752 when Benjamin Franklin flew his famous kite, and since that date, people have always assumed that he discovered electricity. False.
The automotive is also a touchy subject. The first steam powered motorized carriage was built in 1769, in France, by Nicolas Cugnot. The first electrically driven car was built by Robert Anderson in the 1830s, in Scotland. The first gasoline powered automobile was built in 1885 by Gottlieb Daimler (as in Daimler Chrysler, those people still making cars today). Also in 1885, Karl Benz built the first combustion engine powered automobile (just like what we drive today, sort of). Karl Benz, yes, like Mercedes Benz.
So, for the first time ever, Google is wrong. Four pages worth of wrong.
I guess, then, I stick to my original answer: Tivo. Those that don’t have one wouldn’t understand. Oh, and a Comcast or DirecTV DVR is not a Tivo, don’t fool yourself.