How precise does Doc's calculation has to be to hit the lightning?

[jtvang125]

To make it easy we'll use the premise from the movie that the lightning strikes the clock tower at precisely 10:04:00 PM. How precise would his calculations have to be (distance and acceleration) to hit the lightning at the exact time it strikes the tower? Could we ever be precise enough to get it correct on every try?

 

[CycloWizard]

It wouldn't be hard to get the calculations right to an arbitrary degree of accuracy. However, actually getting the car to hit the wire at the right time is practically infeasible.

 

[Cogman]

The car was supposed to be traveling around 80 MPH right? Given that, I figure if we have a 1 second window, then the wire connected to the car would have to be over 120 ft long (So that it has constant contact with the cable as the car travels under it.) That's a lot of cable to be shooting up in the air for a very small window. Realistically, you would want at least a 15 second window to account for human variability and mechanical variability. (My rough guesstimate).

I probably wouldn't have take the route that he did with the hook grabbing the wire at the right point, rather, I would run a bare wire along the ground, hood the car up to the bottom of the wire, and drive. (hoping the lightning doesn't decide to jump off to some other ground.)

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: Cogman
The car was supposed to be traveling around 80 MPH right? Given that, I figure if we have a 1 second window, then the wire connected to the car would have to be over 120 ft long (So that it has constant contact with the cable as the car travels under it.) That's a lot of cable to be shooting up in the air for a very small window. Realistically, you would want at least a 15 second window to account for human variability and mechanical variability. (My rough guesstimate).

I probably wouldn't have take the route that he did with the hook grabbing the wire at the right point, rather, I would run a bare wire along the ground, hood the car up to the bottom of the wire, and drive. (hoping the lightning doesn't decide to jump off to some other ground.)

88 mph!

1.21 Jiggawatts!

Great Scott!

I'm sure that in 1985 plutonium is available at every corner drug store, but in 1955 it's a little hard to come by.

Ok... I think I got it out of my system now.

 

[William Gaatjes]

That was a great movie.

The many faces Christopher Lloyd could pull in that movie. Wonderfull, i had so much laughes. He was great too in "Who framed roger rabbit".

And Michael J. Fox to sum it up : :thumbsup:
I sure hope he is doing well...

 

[spikespiegal]

Given that a lighting strike is required to power the Flux Capacitor, and the Delorean is capable of storing enough current generated by it's RPG to make a 'time jump', then it's logical to assume that you only need enough current to charge the car, and don't require the entire summed discharge of the lighting strike. The time window while small could be managed by having the hook on top of the car flex enough to make a feasible contact time.

Trying to remember my physics on this, but I recall that lighting strikes carry near infinite voltage potential, but current is dictated by the potential of the ground.

Not sure where Doc hid the ground wire, but I wouldn't want to be standing next to it.

Loyd, IMHO, was at his best in 'Dream Team'.

 

[funkymatt]

Originally posted by: spikespiegal
Given that a lighting strike is required to power the Flux Capacitor, and the Delorean is capable of storing enough current generated by it's RPG to make a 'time jump', then it's logical to assume that you only need enough current to charge the car, and don't require the entire summed discharge of the lighting strike. The time window while small could be managed by having the hook on top of the car flex enough to make a feasible contact time.

Trying to remember my physics on this, but I recall that lighting strikes carry near infinite voltage potential, but current is dictated by the potential of the ground.

Not sure where Doc hid the ground wire, but I wouldn't want to be standing next to it.

Loyd, IMHO, was at his best in 'Dream Team'.

it was connected to the lamp posts.