How can you weigh an electron?

[spinner]

Hi, Shanti!
I think we had a misunderstanding...

This is common knowledge. You can easily verify this on the net...E.g. one of the first results is:
http://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/index/lightning-faq/2
The earth is like one huge side of a sphere cap, and the ionosphere the other side. the air in betwenn is the insulator...
And there is quite a huge potential difference between these two...

Yes, agreed.

...And near the surface. where we are the field strength is about 100V/m.

My comment about the potential field difference between the "feet and head" was directed toward this value, also i had a Carnot's experiment in mind... (with the shielding, etc..)

Yes, 100V/m is an average (estimated) value for an atmospheric/Earth static field. The potential difference of the troposphere against ground, divided by the average distance... But the field is not uniform, it is disturbed and reshaped by many things (air distribution/pressure/wind, humidity/clouds, rainfall,...), and looking specifically to the "near the surface" region, it can (and usually is) much lower..
Equipotentials of an electric field (without any other influence) are shaped according to Earth surface shape. Mountains, trees, buildings... And inside the buildings, this intrinsic field/potential is usually very small.. A fraction of the average. And inside the shielded room, E=0.

This value can change quite strongly during some weather conditions (storms). Until they reach even at the surface such high values that you can observe so called St. Elms Fires...
But this happens very very rarely...

I think what many people here do not understand is the fact, the just having a static E-field does not mean this is FE. E.g. take an electret. You can have quite a strong static E-Field from an electret. But you will only be able to one time get energy out of if. Namely until you neutralized the electret E-Field with the E-Field that will be developed due to the current flowing. And as soon as they equalize each other, you couldn't get any energy out of it anymore. And to "reset" your electret again, you would have to invest just as much energy again.
Only the fluctuations in the E-field you could use to produce energy.
On the other hand, the cap you would use to get this energy would have such a low capacity  that the energy you would get would be extremely extremely small. So you see, nothing of practical usage...
The energy you could get from receiving EM-Waves (from radio, tv, mobiles...) would be much bigger, but it is forbidden to use them as a power source...(and btw. their energy is still quite small, unless you're located quite near a powerful antenna)

Yes. I do understand what "field" and "static", "potential" and "conservative", etc., means.

Electrostatic field is similar to a magnetic (permanent) field when it comes to "FE"... Without "medium" and external input of energy, not much happens...  Capturing of "environmental energy" (caused by charging and moving "particles" in an Earth electric field with the help of solar energy) is - mostly - impractical. We already have wind turbines or solar cells which still have (much) better average performance...

As CARNOT said, too bad we still cannot exploit the enormous potential of the atmospheric charge... Which is maitained by solar energy and (constant) lightning activity. A natural "spark gap" oscillator...

Btw, i live close to a high power AM transmitter / antenna...
Having a "decent(!)" E/M components at home. For free! 
Cheers!

[brian334]

I could be wrong, but I think the forces that hold a atom together are stronger than gravity.
If that is not true than how can there be atoms?