If lightning strikes way out in the ocean, and water conducts electricity, why doesnt it reach the beach?

Question

If lightning strikes way out in the ocean, and water conducts electricity, why doesnt it reach the beach?

Answer 1

Well water actually doesnt really conduct electricity very well, it is a common misconsception, its ions in water that make it conduct electricity like people think it should do,

also the ocena is big and although the lighting is powerful the power of it is disbused in lots of directions for hundreds of miles so eventually the effect wears off

Answer 2

Resistance and cubic dissipation.

Answer 3

SALT

FISH

XX

Answer 4

Because it is trying to find the shortest path to the center of the Earth, a metallic ball is there and attracts electricity.

Without it, we would have no electricity at all, as there would be no form of ground to assist the generation of current.

In short, it has to have a place to go, or it can't exist.

Answer 5

who cares?

Answer 6

Try to google it?

Answer 7

Much of the electrical currents are absorbed by the ground...ex. coral reefs, and i hate to admit it but the fish...the electricity is strong but the oceans by far own the largest percent of land on Earth...

Answer 8

cause it hits the fish first

and it gets weaker

Answer 9

it would eventually die out. think of it as if you spilled water on the floor, it would keep spreading out until it stopped. it wouldnt cover the whole floor. Also salt water is not the best conductor either. And the ocean is BIG. The voltage would have to eventually die out anyways. Ohms law.

Answer 10

resistance. salt water is not a very good conductor.

Answer 11

do you know how many water is in the ocean? electricity dies out and it's very unlikely lightning strikes the ocean, lightning will not reach very far and dies fast aswell, lightning usually strikes the tallest object so

Answer 12

The electricity would disperse in the ocean way before it would reach the beach. the salt may have an effect on the electrical current, and the fish and varying objects in the water could absorb some of the shock as well. But since the ocean is so widespread and is very deep, the electricity from the lightning wouldn't get very far.

Answer 13

Because water is not is not a perfect conductor and there is a voltage drop as you go farther away from the lightning strike, according to Ohm's Law.