Does the Earth Have a Net Electric Charge, and Can That Be Tapped?

[ResinRat2]

Its been about two weeks since I buried the two electric cords, one deeper to the north (about four feet down) and the second to the south about half a foot down. they are about 6 feet apart and I am getting basically zero voltage for difference. Granted it is just copper cord exposed below the ground, and not much surface area; but I had hoped there would have been a higher voltage differential.

Looking at the papers rensseak posted, it would seem I need to actually bury electrodes, like zinc and steel, to do the trick. I guess then this would be an earth battery using the ground minerals and moisture as the electrolyte.

I just wanted to post my failure results.

Thanks for your interest,

RR2

[infringer]

Earth batteries require you to use two different metals one for anode one for cathode the earth that I am aware of acts then as your electrolyte at least that is how I recall it...

Hopefully this helps...

-infringer-
www.mopowah.com

[kmarinas86]

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/1998/TreshaEdwards.shtml

The electric field is a measure of the force that is exerted per coulomb of charge. Its measure is defined as kq/r2 where k is the electrostatic constant constant, q is the amount of charge, and r is the distance between charges. The presence of an electric field is identified using a test charge.

The earth's atmosphere has an electric field that is directed radially inward. Most of my sources show that knowing the electric field of the earth can lead to the calculation of the charge on the earth's surface. Though some of the figures obtained are for the earth's atmosphere, it is true that the magnitude of the electric field outside a uniformly charged sphere is the same as if all the charge were concentrated at the center.

I obtained values for the magnitude of the electric field at the Earth's surface. These were in the range of 66 N/C to 150 N/C. These values are close enough to assume that each source received their data from a different primary source and each may be accurate in their own right. I am convinced that the figure is closer to 150 N/C than to 66 N/C because of the sources themselves.

Though the electric field is reported as being constant by some of my sources, The Handbook of Physics and Chemistry proves that the electric field intensity varies measurements taken at different altitudes above sea level. Its intensity decreases as you move farther away from the earth's surface.

Tresha Edwards -- 1998

[Pirate88179]

Earth batteries require you to use two different metals one for anode one for cathode the earth that I am aware of acts then as your electrolyte at least that is how I recall it...

Hopefully this helps...

-infringer-
www.mopowah.com

Well, with my experiments over the years, you can use 2 pieces of a copper pipe cut from the same length and, if aligned properly, you can get volts and mA's.  I did this a few years ago to dispell the "galvanic" opinion.  Many others have done this as well.  Obviously not as good as I get with Mg and carbon electrodes but, I think it did show that there is something else going on here besides pure galvanic.

Bill

[ResinRat2]

Thanks for your replies Infringer, KS86, and Bill.

One of the reasons I was never too interested in the earth battery was because I assumed it was a simple galvanic reaction going on. Nothing special in my mind. If you need two different metals then one is being consumed and will need to be replaced down the line; but your results, Bill,  with using two copper pipes sounds interesting. If you are using the same metals then something else is going on.

I will pull up the cords and re-dig the holes. This time burying copper pipe pieces to act as the electrodes. Thanks for the info Bill.

Also, Bill, did you ever try different depths between the two electrodes with your experiments? This would fall right in line with what I am thinking of doing with this experiment.

Thanks for your interest everyone,

RR2