This is probably the most colorful part of the instructable. So I will be explaining my theory of how it works, and if you want, you can time travel and ask Nikola if my theory is right. So we will be using energy device # 5. Let's imagine that the sky is mainly positively charged, but has some bits of negative in it; and the ground is mainly negatively charged, but has some bits of positive in it. So the antenna collects what's in the sky, and the grounding connection collects what's in the ground. So as shown in the second picture, The collected charges are separated by the diodes and put into the capacitor to store. If you have both antenna and ground, it charges faster than if you only use one. So where do the charges come from you might ask. The charges come from the sun. As shown in the third picture, the sun has a corona which is a white, electrically charged layer around the sun. So as it extends into space, it gradually thins out into a lot of streams of electrically charged particles called solar wind. Now our earth has a magnetic field which deflects almost all of the solar wind, but extremely small amounts of it pass through the magnetic shield. That makes the charges as shown in picture one. Since the sky gets charged, the ground also gets charged oppositely by laws of physics. The generators separate the charges and put them to good use by charging a capacitor.
Um, explain this one to me.
If the air gets positively charged, then surely the ground also gets positively charged as there is a net decrease in electrons.
What you may be thinking of is if you have a closed system: If you move the electrons to one side, then that will create a positive charge on one side, and a negative one on the other.
This doesn't apply here as there is an addition of the solar wind (not a closed system), which by the way, according to wikipedia, has both protons and electrons, and thus no charge.
I'm not meaning to pick holes in your ible (ok, maybe I am), but would like to point these out, and that I don't agree with this.
I am not a physicist, so I may be wrong but:
My threory:
The facts:
+ve charge in the atmosphere
-ve charge in the ground (I agree with you here, I cannot deny it, because it works)
The Speculation:
The charge difference has to come from somewhere, and you suggested solar wind. I suggest a system similar to thunderstorms: Friction has the ability to knock electrons around. The direction of where the electrons go is determined by the elements electronegativity. Air, made up mostly of nitrogen, with a high electronegativity value of 3.006, and the ground (most other elements, like metals and such making up the ground) would have a much lower overall value.
What all that means is that when the air hits the ground (wind etc) some electrons are knocked out of the air, giving it a positive charge, and the ground a negative charge.
Anyone got any other theories?
-ground