Question:
Do you think it would be possible to produce power by
collecting bolts of lightning, and converting the energy to an alternating
current?
Replies:
Seems like the first problem is getting the lightning to strike where and
when you want. But if you did put a big lightning rod up in the air, and
waited for a lightning bolt, you COULD store the charge of the lightning
bolt. This would be on a big "capacitor", sort of a jar which holds
charge. you could then bleed this stored charge off slowly at a later
time, to get a direct current, like a big battery. But only as much charge
as the lightning bolt put in.
I think the actual building of such a gizmo would be hard, then you might
have to wait awhile for lighning to strike, but the idea is ok.
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