Electric Power from the Earth’s Magnetic Field
Date: Monday, August 08, 2016 @ 14:18:32 UTC
Topic: Science
Via Physics.Aps.Org : Focus: Electric Power from the Earth’s Magnetic Field
 A loophole in a result from classical electromagnetism could allow a simple device on the Earth’s surface to generate a tiny electric current from the planet’s magnetic field.
Tapping into Earth’s rotation. Although the Earth’s magnetic field is not aligned exactly with the planet’s rotation axis, there is a component of the field that is symmetric about this axis. A proposed device interacting with this component would extract energy from the Earth’s rotation to produce electric power.
It might seem that classical electromagnetic theory would hold few surprises, but two researchers argue that one aspect of received wisdom is wrong. They show theoretically that a device, sitting passively on the Earth’s surface, can generate an electric current through its interaction with the Earth’s magnetic field. The power from the proposed device would be measured in nanowatts, but might, in principle, be scaled up.
Full article: http://physics.aps.org/articles/v9/91
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