At 10:04 p.m. on November 12, 1955, lightning struck the Hill Valley, California, courthouse.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Donny Ferguson 🗽 Retweeted

64 years ago today, November 12, 1955, at 10:04 pm lightning struck the Hill Valley courthouses

Link to tweet

Back to the Future

[Aristus]

1. The energy output of the strike has been estimated at approximately 1.21 gigawatts.

n/t

[lastlib]

5. Awww, flux that......

[JuJuYoshida]

2. what the hell's a gigawatt?

[jpak]

4. A billion watts

[sl8]

7. I think she's quoting Marty.

At about 1:00:

[NurseJackie]

8. Which is correct? Jig-a-watt (with the soft-G sound) or Gig-a-watt (with a hard-G sound)...

Which is correct? Jig-a-watt (with the soft-G sound) or Gig-a-watt (with a hard-G sound)?

I never hear anyone say "jig-a-byte" so is it different for watts vs bytes?

[sl8]

9. "You Say Gigawatt, I Say Jigowatt"

I've always said it with a hard G, but we're dealing with English, so of course it can't be that straightforward.

You Say Gigawatt, I Say Jigowatt

By Richard S. Chang April 8, 2008 12:56 pm April 8, 2008 12:56 pm

In the course of writing about Lauren Reilly’s DeLorean, I came across a strange dilemma concerning one of the quotes from “Back to the Future.”

In the scene where Marty McFly tells Young Doc Brown the amount of energy needed to power the flux capacitor, Brown has a minor meltdown. “1.21 JIGOWATTS!” he says over and over. That’s how it’s written in the script — jigowatt. But you won’t find the word in the dictionary. What you will find is gigawatt. And since we pronounce gigabyte with a hard g, it seems logical that gigawatt would follow suit.

According to BTTF.com, an unofficial movie fan site, the subject was addressed in the Special Edition DVD by Bob Gale, the movie’s producer, in his voice-over commentary during the scene with the scale model:

[...]

It seems Doc Brown was right all along.

[NurseJackie]

10. Interesting info! Thanks for finding it and sharing it!

[BuffaloJackalope]

3. .

[edbermac]

6. Fake News!