As surprising as it may seem, one piece of obscure scientific lore from Back to the Future is actually entirely true to life. Every time travel movie has to decide early on how seriously the project will take the idea of time travel itself. On a scale from 2004’s intense indie Primer, which invests the idea with total scientific veracity, and 2010’s H๏τ Tub Time Machine, which effectively compares it to magic, the Back to the Future series lands somewhere in the middle.
On the one hand, Doc and Marty’s adventures regularly ignore time travel paradoxes, and the question of how exactly Christopher Lloyd’s eccentric scientist unlocked the secret of time travel is buried deep in some nonsensical pseudo-scientific jargon. On the other hand, Back to the Future Part III’s gasoline subplot, wherein Doc Brown is stranded in the past because he can’t find or make the substance needed to fuel his time travel machine, is pretty grounded. On the whole, the Back To The Future trilogy flits between sci-fi silliness and believable plotting.
Back To The Future Was Right, Lightning Can Generate 1.21 Gigawatts Of Power
A Typical Lightning Bolt Produces Up To 1.21 Gigawatts
For example, in the original Back To The Future, Doc and Marty rely on lightning striking the Hill Valley clock tower to provide the DeLorean with the electric energy necessary to power Marty’s return to the тιтular “Future” of 1985. This is a pretty pivotal plot point, since Doc and Marty have, at this point, exhausted their other options. However, they can’t simply remain in the past. Fortunately, the lightning strike works, and the DeLorean manages to make it to 88 miles per hour, meaning Marty successfully returns to 1985 Hill Valley in Back To The Future’s ending.
The DeLorean needs to receive over 1 gigawatt to reach 88 miles per hour, and a real-life lightning strike can produce over 1.2 gigawatts.
While Back To The Future Part II’s plot complicates things further by sending another version of Marty back to 1955 again, the original movie’s ending leaves viewers with an obvious question. Surprisingly, Back To The Future’s depiction of lightning’s electric potential is accurate, as Doc Brown’s estimate of how much power the strike will provide aligns with reality. The DeLorean needs to receive over 1 gigawatt to reach 88 miles per hour, and a real-life lightning strike can produce over 1.2 gigawatts.
How Much Power A Gigawatt Is In Real Terms
A Gigawatt Is A Billion Watts (Or Ten Million Ordinary 100W Light Bulbs)
Although people can survive being struck by lightning, one gigawatt is no small measure of power. One gigawatt is equal to 1 billion watts, or ten million 100-watt light bulbs. In practical terms, the Carbon Collective Investment notes that a single gigawatt could power around 876,000 average homes for an entire year. As such, Back To The Future’s Marty McFly is lucky he didn’t get hit by the energy powering the DeLorean.
Doc Brown does end up on the receiving end of a lightning strike in Back To The Future, but his zany demeanor makes it clear that this isn’t the first or last time he has tangoed with electric shocks, thanks to the business he is in. These regular blasts of electricity might explain why Doc is as strange as he is, but there is no denying that his plan works out and even proves relatively realistic in Back To The Future’s ending.
Source: Carbon Collective Investment
