20-04-2020, 11:58 AM
Yes, there is an absolute concept of voltage. Basically, a charged body attracts or repeals another charge. So allowing (or forcing) another charge to approach, results in energy being lost or gained.
It turns out that, because the force diminishes fairly rapidly with distance, if you bring your test charge up from an infinite distance, the total energy is still finite. So, that allows definition of an absolute voltage: a body has an absolute voltage of 1 volt if bringing a 1 coulomb charge up to it involves an energy of 1 joule.
Similarly, an absolute capacitance can be defined.
Putting this into context, a spherical raindrop 1mm diameter (I don't know how big Doodlebug's raindrops are in Leicestershire so I made an assumption), has a capacitance of 0.05pF.
So, if each drop has of 3 x 10^-18 coulombs - Panrock's research info - it is at a potential of 53μV (anybody! Feel free to comment on this).
53μV is small, but detectable relatively easily with modern commodity op-amps, although the capacitance of the measuring circuit, to me, will drop the voltage (pun intended!). More highly charged raindrops will be easier.
So, looking forward to more results!
It turns out that, because the force diminishes fairly rapidly with distance, if you bring your test charge up from an infinite distance, the total energy is still finite. So, that allows definition of an absolute voltage: a body has an absolute voltage of 1 volt if bringing a 1 coulomb charge up to it involves an energy of 1 joule.
Similarly, an absolute capacitance can be defined.
Putting this into context, a spherical raindrop 1mm diameter (I don't know how big Doodlebug's raindrops are in Leicestershire so I made an assumption), has a capacitance of 0.05pF.
So, if each drop has of 3 x 10^-18 coulombs - Panrock's research info - it is at a potential of 53μV (anybody! Feel free to comment on this).
53μV is small, but detectable relatively easily with modern commodity op-amps, although the capacitance of the measuring circuit, to me, will drop the voltage (pun intended!). More highly charged raindrops will be easier.
So, looking forward to more results!
