Storm clouds build up large negative charges when wind causes friction between water droplets, dust, and ice particles in the cloud. The charge in the cloud induces an opposite and roughly equal charge in the ground below, effectively creating a very large capacitor as shown below, with the cloud being the negative electrode and the ground being the positive electrode.  The cloud stores an enormous - 30 C of charge in a large volume, let's say roughly a sphere of diameter 1 km. The potential difference between the cloud and the ground is roughly 5 x 108 V. If a series of strikes transfers all of the charge from cloud to ground in 1 second, what is the average power during the series of strikes?  Give your answer in GW. Give your answer to 2 significant digits.

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Storm clouds build up large negative charges when wind causes friction between water droplets, dust, and ice particles in the cloud. The charge in the cloud induces an opposite and roughly equal charge in the ground below, effectively creating a very large capacitor as shown below, with the cloud being the negative electrode and the ground being the positive electrode.  The cloud stores an enormous - 30 C of charge in a large volume, let's say roughly a sphere of diameter 1 km. The potential difference between the cloud and the ground is roughly 5 x 108 V. If a series of strikes transfers all of the charge from cloud to ground in 1 second, what is the average power during the series of strikes?  Give your answer in GW. Give your answer to 2 significant digits. 

1 km
- 30 C
5 km
+ + + + + +
+30 C
Transcribed Image Text:1 km - 30 C 5 km + + + + + + +30 C
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