📝 SummarXiv

Abstract

The suggestion made by C. F. Chyba and K. P. Hand about electric power generation from Earth's rotation through its own magnetic field is intriguing [1, 2]. Here, we reanalyze the theoretical arguments for their conclusion, especially those presented in [1]. The model that they consider, is a magnetic cylindrical shell moving with low velocity $v$ in the $y$ direction at a right angle to the direction of the Earth's magnetic field $B_\infty$. We first focus on one of the electromagnetic boundary conditions for moving dielectric boundaries (a topic not dealt with in [1, 2]), and obtain therefrom a result at variance with the main result in the mentioned papers. Therefore, we have to conclude that their result does not satisfy this boundary condition. Moreover, by a simple calculation, we observe that a displacement of the shell in the mentioned $y$ direction, does not involve any expenditure of external work. A process involving dissipation of energy as envisaged in [1, 2] thus appears to be forbidden for energy conservation reasons.