Jadaro:

Quoteis it not reasonable to deduce than that a long enough line will begin to conduct electricity not as a result of electricity but as a result of it being on the surface of the earth and since the earth is rotating, it is thus moving in an otherwise stationary field?

It is always about changing magnetic fields with respect to time.  It is just a giant version of what happens when you move a coil of wire near a magnet.  The Earth is rotating slowly so the change in magnetic field with respect to time is very very slow.  The magnetic field itself is barely changing because it lines up with the surface of the Earth.  So this is not a viable way to extract energy from the rotating Earth.

Edge:

QuoteThis is one of the reasons why 'most' power lines run East to West, the Earth and the Moon have field lines that induce electrical current flow into the lines and sometimes would blow out the transformers.

The only issue is solar storms that rain charged particles down on the Earth.  No relationship with East-West vs. North-South.  Moving charged particles represent a large amount of changing electric current, generating millions of times more rate of change of magnetic flux than the Earth's magnetic lines of force, and that induces real energy into power lines.  You probably are aware of the famous power outage in Quebec Canada in 1989.

MileHigh

The Big:

QuoteA HAARP ELF antenna could do that, as a receiver, to diodes, capacitors and batteries.  100 square miles could generate a significant amount of power, even way out in the country; not near civilization.

You have a problem.... receive what?  There is no free lunch raining down from the sky.

MileHigh

Quote from: MileHigh on September 30, 2009, 12:49:43 AM
...There is no free lunch raining down from the sky.
MileHigh

Okay, why not?

http://www.rexresearch.com/plauson/plauson.htm

--Lee

onthecuttingedge2005

Quote
Thank you.
Jerry

You're welcome.

--Lee

The Big:

You shouldn't take an article written in 1922 too literally.  You have probably seen clips on YouTube where people use antennas, diodes and capacitors go get power from the air.  They are lucky if they can charge a 10 uF cap to 5 volts in 24 hours.  That's something like nanowatts of power.

With some sort of large antenna array, the amount of power you could extract from the air would probably be something between mircowatts or nanowatts of power per square meter.

A 100 square mile antenna array would be the world's largest megaproject.  The amount of energy expended and the cost to build it would be astronomical.

The number crunching on the return on investment doesn't look very good.   

MilleHigh