this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
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Iโ€™m just curious during thunderstorm, if anyone tried to fire a bullet during storm into clouds? Will the lightning strike the bullet? Mythbusters or someone else maybe did that ?

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[โ€“] amio@kbin.social 20 points 1 year ago

No. Lightning happens when charge builds up. When it gets big enough relative to how much resistance there is to the ground, it manages to ionize the air, creating a pathway for the charge to flow to/from ground and neutralizing it. The metal in the bullet would likely be a better conductor than air (less resistance), but it is absolutely miniscule and these things happen on an enormous scale. There would also need to be a near-critical charge there already - a lightning strike "waiting to happen". Charge keeps building in a thunderstorm, so basically it'd just happen a moment later anyway at "best", if you magically managed to fire a bullet at the right time and location to make a critical difference in resistance.