Question

A large lightning bolt had a 20,000-A current and moved 30.0 C of charge. What was its duration?

Short answer

The value of time interval is\(1.5 \times {10^{ - 3}}\;{\rm{s}}\).

Step-by-step solution

Identification of the given data

The given data can be listed below as,

• The value of electric current is,\(I = 20000\;{\rm{A}}\)
• The value of electric charge is, \(Q = 30.0\;{\rm{C}}\)

Significance of time interval of current flow

When a specific electric current moves through an object, then the value of the time interval of the current flow can be obtained with the help of Ohm’s law by using the value of electric current and electric charge.

Determination of the time interval of electric charge movement

The relation to calculate the time interval of electric charge movement is expressed as,

\(\begin{aligned}Q = It\\t = \frac{Q}{I}\end{aligned}\)

Here,\(t\)is the required time interval of electric charge movement.

Substitute all the known values in the above equation.

\(\begin{aligned}t = \left( {\frac{{30.0\;{\rm{C}}}}{{20000\;{\rm{A}}}}} \right)\left( {\frac{{1\;{\rm{s}}}}{{1\;{\rm{C/A}}}}} \right)\\ = 1.5 \times {10^{ - 3}}\;{\rm{s}}\end{aligned}\)

Thus, the time interval of electric charge movement is\(1.5 \times {10^{ - 3}}\;{\rm{s}}\).