How is it that lightening is so hot but while being electrocuted people can survive and not be cooked essentially from the heat ?
In: Biology
It depends largely on how they’re struck; what path the electricity takes through the body and how much actually goes through them. If it largely is pathed away from your heart, you stand a good chance of living. And if the circuit’s just say your right arm to your right leg, there’s no reason for electricity to be flowing through anything other than the shortest path. Your right arm and leg and torso would have some bad burns, but nothing critical would be roasted. Additionally, many strikes are secondary, like if you’re touching a metal structure while it gets struck; then you just get a nasty shock.
Also, on the other side of physics, water has a high thermal capacity; it takes a lot of heat energy to heat it up 1C. Air has a low thermal capacity. If a lightning bolt has a constant wattage, it’s going to heat up air thousands of more degrees than it’ll heat up a body of water
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