Chronology | Current Month | Current Thread | Current Date |
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] | [Date Index] [Thread Index] | [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] | [Date Prev] [Date Next] |
... the fair weather
electric field near the surface of the earth is of the order of 100 V/m.
However, a charge density of slightly less than 1 nC/m^2 on the surface of
the earth is all that is needed to support a field of this magnitude. In
comparison a small parallel plate capacitor (plate area 1 cm^2 and plate
separation of 0.1 cm) charged to 12 V will store a charge of about 120 nC,
which corresponds to a charge density of 1,200,000 nC/m^2. Thus, any
slight charging of the battery-capacitor system by atmospheric effects
would be negligible in comparison to the amount of charge being separated
by the action of the battery.
Dr. Mark H. Shapiro