In reply to Michel Jullian's message of Sun, 17 Dec 2006 11:05:29 +0100: Hi, [snip] >It's OK Robin, it happens to me all the time :) >Your other point is valid though, we don't know how long it takes the Sun to >charge this capacitor. But it's unlikely it charges it in one two millionth of >a day = 43 ms, which would be required for it to provide the world's daily >energy consumption :/ > >Michel If the fair weather current is 1E-12 amps per square meter, then the total current for the entire planet is 510 A. Multiplying this by 300000 V gives a power of 153 MW - not much to run our civilization on. BTW the fair weather current would charge the Earth capacitor in 55.7 seconds.
BTW2 if we were to drain this power for other uses, it would not be available for lightning, which is intimately involved with rainfall. The consequences for global rainfall could be catastrophic. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://users.bigpond.net.au/rvanspaa/ Competition provides the motivation, Cooperation provides the means.
