légend that Benjamin Franklin flew a kite as a storm approached is only a legend -- he was neither stupid nor suicidal. Suppose a kite string of radius 2.00 mm extends directly upward by 0.800 km and has a resistivity 150 N m when wet. If the potential difference between the two ends of the string is 160 MV, what is the current through the wet string? The danger is not this current but the chance that the string draws a lightning strike, which can have a current as large as 500,000 A (way beyond just being lethal).

légend that Benjamin Franklin flew a kite as a storm approached is only a legend -- he was neither stupid nor suicidal. Suppose a kite string of radius 2.00 mm extends directly upward by 0.800 km and has a resistivity 150 N m when wet. If the potential difference between the two ends of the string is 160 MV, what is the current through the wet string? The danger is not this current but the chance that the string draws a lightning strike, which can have a current as large as 500,000 A (way beyond just being lethal).