Question

Earth’s atmosphere is constantly bombarded by cosmic ray protons that originate somewhere in space. If the protons all passed through the atmosphere, each square meter of Earth’s surface would intercept protons at the average rate of 1500 protons per second.What would be the electric current intercepted by the total surface area of the planet?

Answer 1

Answer:

The current would be 0.12A

Explanation:

Well, the formula for electric current is

$i=\frac{q}{t}$

where i is current, q is charge and t is time. Then we have to calculate the charge. If we know that the charge of a proton is $1.6*10^{-19} C$, then we calculate the charge of 1500 protons as it follows:

$q=1500*1.6*10^{-19} C\\q=2.4*10^{-16} C$

So the current for each square meter of Earth's surface is

$i=\frac{2.4*10^{-16} C}{1s} \\i=2.4*10^{-16} A$

Finally, knowing the surface of the Earth is 510065284702000 $m^{2}$, we can calculate the total current $i_{t}$

$i_{t}= 2.4*10^{-16} A*510065284702000\\i_{t}=0.12A$