planetary electromagnetism

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

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> Check out this dulcimer page. This fellow has invented a removable fret,

Interesting tip, John; thanks.

My mom and I made a - not REmovable, but movable - fret dulcimer a while
back. it worked out pretty nicely. It was pretty straight-forward: thick
wires around a raised neck, and since the dulcimer's neck (unlike must
fretted strings) doesn't change width as you go up and down the neck, it
worked out just great.

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