what is the speed of lighting if it wasnt zig-zagged??
2007-01-26 14:03:51 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
While lightning travels much faster than sound it is not as fast as light. Photons having no mass are able to travel at the speed of light. Electrons have mass and they travel at speeds much less than the speed of light. I believe that the voltage involved would determine the speed of the electrons. Since the voltage is limited by the fact that the charges are free to move as soon as the voltage reaches some critical value all Lightning probably travels at close to the same speed. I don't know what that value is but reaching very near the speed of light takes a huge amount of energy so I doubt that the speed is very close to that of light.
2007-01-26 14:55:01 · answer #1 · answered by anonimous 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
The speed of a bolt of lightning would not be the speed of light.
It is an arc passing through the atmosphere,it encounters a lot of resistance.
I don"t know what the speed of the bolt would be but it would have to be much less than the speed of light.
2007-01-27 07:52:11 · answer #2 · answered by Billy Butthead 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
the speed of lightning in the atmosphere varies up to about 93,000 miles per second, half the speed of light...and cant really exceed that. Lightning is an electrical discharge that follows a path of ionized air, and as such, the ionized air provides resistance which reduces the maximum speed, limiting it to about half lightspeed...
2007-01-26 23:02:19 · answer #3 · answered by Beach_Bum 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The SPEED of lightning isn't changed by the path it takes. Lightning is a rush of electrical current through the air at a speed close to the speed of light (670,616,629 mph). That's the speed of light in a total vacuum, but since lightning doesn't happen in a vacuum its speed is slightly below the speed of light.
2007-01-26 22:25:20 · answer #4 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I think you mean lightning, not light. If so, the speed is the same whether it is straight or zigzagged, which is about 1/10 the speed of light.
2007-01-26 22:17:27 · answer #5 · answered by gp4rts 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
well luckly today i had a test in science and i had to know the spped of light and the answer is 300,000 km/s in emply space luckly i hade my notes sitting on my desk right now goodluck
2007-01-26 22:09:50 · answer #6 · answered by dreamer 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
more precisely:
299,792,458 meters per second.
2007-01-26 22:11:02 · answer #7 · answered by synth 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
300,000 km/s
2007-01-26 22:10:43 · answer #8 · answered by Michael Dino C 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋