Charging a Tesla with Lightning
Let's make one thing clear - I want a Tesla P90D (pictured below). I'll spare you the details as to why, but since we are learning about lightning, let's figure out how much power a single lightning strike can provide to charge up and drive a Tesla P90D. Use the assumptions below to answer the following questions. You must show all of your work to get full credit.
Assumptions:
- Tesla's battery storage capacity in kilowatt-hours = 90 kWh
- A typical lightning strike contains 5 billion Joules (5,000,000,000 J)
- Tesla P90D Range when the battery is full = 253 miles
- 1 kWh = 3.6*106 Joules
- 1 gallon of gas contains 120,276,000 Joules of energy
1. If you could capture all 5 billion Joules of energy from a strike and use it to charge the Tesla's battery, how many miles could you drive on the energy contained in the strike?
2. In a typical strike only 1% of all the energy is electrical and the rest is heat. If you were only able to use 1% of the total energy from the strike, how many miles could you travel on the electrical energy contained in the strike?
3. How many gallons of gasoline worth of energy does one lightning strike contain?
4. How many gallons of gasoline worth of energy does the electrical energy in one lightning strike contain?
5. My car's gas tank holds 19 gallons of gasoline and I average 29 miles per gallon. How many miles can I drive on one tank of gas?
6. How many miles could my car drive if I could store all of the energy from a strike and use it to power my car?
7. Under the same assumptions in question #6, how many miles could my car drive if we only use the electrical energy of a strike to power my car?
8. Since we are talking about how long lightning can power things, how many days can the electrical energy of a lightning strike power your cell phone? Assume your phone battery capacity is 0.02 kWh and that energy can power your phone for 5 hours at of constant use.