In lightning storms, the potential difference among the Earth and the bottom of thunderclouds can be as high as 31,000,000 V. The bottoms of thunderclouds are usually 1500 m above the Earth, and can encompass an area of 95 km2. For the purposes of this problem, model the Earth-cloud system as a big capacitor.
(i) Compute the capacitance of the Earth-cloud system.
(ii) Compute the charge stored in the ‘capacitor’.
(iii) Compute the energy stored in the ‘capacitor’.