Watts are an power / energy measurement. Just like Joules, dynes,
Horsepower. True that true power would be Watt-hours. But that 50000 watts
over a couple of milliseconds can do tremendous damage. And that damage
takes power. It takes only very short pulse from a very large laser to
trigger a hydrogen pellet to begin fusion. An atom bomb only fissions for
an extremely short time, but lots of power is generated. As well as lots of
energy generated. And a human can push a nail into a block of wood. Small
nail, but not a railroad spike (large nail). Just different amounts of
energy expended. Oh well, I guess my engineering degree is invalid, and
lighting has no power, just lots of energy.


"w_tom" wrote in message
...
You are confusing power (watts) with energy (joules).

A human cannot push a nail into wood. A backhoe can force
that nail into a block of wood. Clearly big energy must be
required. Why does a simple 20 oz hammer, driven by nothing
more than a human arm, do same in one hit? Does the human
arm suddenly output high energy? Of course not. Again, don't
confuse power with energy. Lightning is a high power event,
but does not have the high energy that so many assume. This
confusion between power and energy is another source of so
many myths about lightning.

Using your own numbers, that 50,000 watts would be only 2
joules. Not even enough energy to light a 7 watt Christmas
tree light for one second. So where is the high energy?

Again, well over 90% of trees known to be struck by
lightning left no appreciable indication. Why? Most direct
lightning strikes are not high energy. Don't confuse this
statement with energy elsewhere in the event.

Energy content is not relevant to the OP's event. Lightning
found destructive paths to earth ground because the human
still has not installed (earthed) effective protection.
(Plug-in protectors also are not effective protection.) He
has damaged appliances. That means lightning electricity was
permitted inside the house to find circuits both into and out
of those appliances that were damaged. We still don't build
new homes as if the transistor exists. Therefore the
homeowner is often stuck fixing the problem - and often
without honest or accurate information.

Up front is the fundamental fact. Earthing is the
protection. Lightning seeks earth ground either via
destructive paths inside the house OR via safer paths
(provided by humans) that don't enter the structure.
Protection is only as effective as the earth ground.

Bill McKee wrote:
There is so much energy in a lighting bolt, that it creates it's own
ionization path to ground. Reason that a banker sitting inside the
bank in a chair, and the lighting hit the drive through teller
machine, arced to the wall and came out the 115V ac outlet, jumping
to the banker and screwing him up for life. You put a couple of
hundred thousand volts and even minimal amperage and you have lots
of energy. 100,000 volts and 0.5 amps of current and you have
50,000 Watts of energy. As to needing a ground, there are
reports of "ball Lighting" coming through the nose of an airliner
and rolling down the aisle. Same ball lighting will roll along
electric fences. Growing up in California, we did not see much
lighting, but I remember the first TV antenna I saw that had been
hit by lighting. Top of a motel, and there was a 3'x3' hole blown
in the roof. Big energy.
Bill