if water conducts electricity, why does a lightening strike in the middle of the ocean not kill those people standing in the same water beside a beach not get fried?
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The voltage you would be exposed to would depend on the distance you are from the strike according to the inverse square law.
Electricity is a form of energy just like heat.
Imagine putting a glowing hot piece of iron into a bucket of water.
All the water would boil instantly.
Now imagine putting that same hot iron into the ocean.
There would be some bubbling right where you put it, but a bit further away, you wouldn’t notice a thing.
The energy moves through all the water drops it touches, so when it hits multiple drops of water at the same time, the energy is divided between those.
After a few divides, there is barely any energy left.
The electricity distributes over a wide area. Sure, your whole body may experience a few microvolts, but that’s really not a lot. Anything *near* the lightening experiences a shock, but the shock quickly diminishes as distance increases from the strike zone.
Because there is a LOT of water. If a lighting strike hits your pool, it’s gonna reach the side with almost no lost of energy. If it hits 100 million gallons of water, the energy is gonna get dissipated so much you can’t feel it on the beach
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