Re: Charge on the Earth

[John Mallinckrodt <ajmallinckro@CSUPomona.Edu>]

On Tue, 8 Apr 1997, Mark Shapiro wrote:

> 	I'm not sure I agree with John's statement that the earth deviates
> "substantially" from neutrality.  ...  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.

Mark,

I agree with everything you wrote.  The point of my post was simply to
point out 1) that no capacitor is likely to have have equal magnitude
charges on its plates and 2) that it doesn't matter.  I'd just emphasize
that the reason it doesn't matter is *not* that the excess charge is
negligible.

John
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