seant
Sep9-08, 08:41 PM
As a crude model for lightning, consider the ground to be one plate of a parallel-plate capacitor and a cloud at an altitude of 620 m to be the other plate. Assume the surface area of the cloud to be the same as the area of a square that is 0.40 km on a side.
(a) What is the capacitance of this capacitor?
nF
(b) How much charge can the cloud hold before the dielectric strength of the air is exceeded and a spark (lightning) results?
C
I used C=E0 A/D (8.85*10^-12 C^2/N*m^2)(.16km^2/620m) and conversions also, but to no avail can someone please help
(a) What is the capacitance of this capacitor?
nF
(b) How much charge can the cloud hold before the dielectric strength of the air is exceeded and a spark (lightning) results?
C
I used C=E0 A/D (8.85*10^-12 C^2/N*m^2)(.16km^2/620m) and conversions also, but to no avail can someone please help