Question: This is the second time I write this post because the first time it got deleted...so I must say that I am not going to go into all the detail that I went into the first time I wrote this..not to mention that I'm a bit p.o.'d.

In back to the future, doc brown says that a lightning bolt can generate 1.21 GigaWatts of power...I read another website that said that an average lightning bolt produces only hundreds of MegaWatts, which is clearly not greater than or equal to 1.21 GigaWatts...would I be correct in assuming that the lightning bolt would not have be able to send Marty back to the future?

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu...ightning2.html

Also, would there even have been a cable that would have been able to handle that much power back in 1955? We all know that if the cable couldn't have handled it, it would have burned up, thus the power never reaching the deLorean.

A superconductor (such as mercury below 4 Kelvin) is an example of an "ideal conductor"? And by "ideal"..I mean no resisitivity. Is there such a conductor found naturally and applicable in normal terrestial temperatures?

Answer: The 1.21 gigawatt figure was simply made up. The actual "power" of a lightning bolt depends on many factors, including the total charge differential and the thickness of the plasma channel. Not all lightning bolts are the same.

The total amount of heat dissipated by a cable depends not only on its resistivity, but also on the time period over which current is applied. If the current is passed for only a tiny fraction of a second, even standard household wiring can support enormous instantaneous currents.

And no, no naturally-occuring high-temperature superconductors exist. Some man-made ones are getting close, though. The race is on.

This is type.