source file: mills2.txt Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 19:36:29 -0800 Subject: planetary electromagnetism From: James Kukula Clearly planetary e-m activity can have very dramatic effects. Lightening somehow results from charges accumulating up in the atmosphere. And lightening causes thunder. The whole phenomenon even gets reflected in music practise (bring on the tympani). I've heard that the charges up in the atmosphere create an electric field that we live in, on the order of 100 volts per meter. Yikes! One of my pet inventions, never built, is a device consisting of a pair of parallel conducting plates spinning on an axis which is parallel to the plates. The field would make charges flow back and forth between the plates, and that current could be measured. Why not electric field reports in the 10PM news, along with barometric pressure etc. Where does this huge field come from? Clearly there's a lot of energy stored there. Lightening is quite powerful if you've ever had anything like a near miss. A moving experience I assure you. I know zip about atmospheric physics, but I imagine the friction of the wind on the earth must act a bit like shoes on carpet. Zap! But I also imagine that extraterrestrial phenomena get into the act. The solar wind must play a part. And even cosmic rays, those mysterious bullets. I should think a cosmic ray shower would open up a conducting path from atmosphere to earth that would help discharge the imbalance. How much of the strange vibe around a thunderstorm or tornado actually comes from electric effects? Jim Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sat, 22 Mar 1997 08:45 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA08674; Sat, 22 Mar 1997 08:45:04 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA08673 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id XAA25725; Fri, 21 Mar 1997 23:43:25 -0800 Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 23:43:25 -0800 Message-Id: <199703220239_MC2-131B-D299@compuserve.com> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu