After you've answered, take a guess on the temperature of one or both of them.
I've seen where lightening strikes the beach and turns the sand into glass. I think if you tossed a load of sand into the sun it would vaporize. So, I'm gonna say the sun is a lot hotter. Of course, that could be because the sun is relatively perpetual when compared to lightening. Can't guess on actual temps tho I am nearly positive I've read both at some point. My rule on these is I can't look them up.
Lightning is hotter. A little known fact is that it's actually lightning that keeps the earth warm. The sun is only there to make the place look nicer during daylight hours.
John, is the Babylon Bee the source for that little known fact? ;-)
Mike, people have been struck by Lightning and survived. If hotter then the surface of the sun, then they would have been, well, toast.
Very funny John.
Correct on lightning being hotter though.
5 times hotter than the SURFACE of the sun. This wasn't intended to be a trick question but thinking back to when I learned of this fact decades ago, my first thought was...........no way that can be right. Tim was surely thinking like me with his answer because the core of the sun is around 1,000 times hotter than its surface.
The core of the sun is around 27,000,000 degrees F, while the surface of the sun is only around 10,000 degrees F.
The temperature of lightning is around 50,000 degrees F. This is 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun................but obviously not anywhere close to the temperature in the core of the sun.
So there are 2 surprises about that statistic and a super-mega amazing fact(s) related to it.
1. That lighting is that hot.........50,000 deg. F
2. That the surface of the sun is so much cooler than its core............heck, cool the suns surface down another 9,920 degrees and you could have a picnic on there
3. That there are incredibly advanced creatures living on a rock, 93,000,000 away from the sun who have evolved because of its warmth/energy to a stage where they have learned the physics/science of the sun and can measure much of its output!!
4. Many of those same incredibly advanced creatures, are ruled by incredible biases and emotions that often cripples their cerebral functioning.
https://www.space.com/17137-how-hot-is-the-sun.html
"The temperature of our nearest star varies tremendously, and not in ways you might realize."
I will be in Detroit again, next week and the week after that taking care of my 93 year dad(I go up there numerous times a year) and will probably only be able to post during the first half of the day.
Before leaving, let's try to cover fascinating facts related to lightning.