I love buying physics toys. I recently broke out my new electromagnetic field meter and started playing with it. After turning it on, I noticed the device kept showing an electric field value of 200 N/C towards the ground, without being near anything obvious (e. g., an electronic device) that would be producing the electric field. I even took a long walk to check if the reading was somehow localized to my house, but I got the same result. How might you explain the reading (assuming the device is working properly)

ionized particles from the sun.

* interactions in radiation belts.

* the friction of the planet in the solar wind

q = +9 10⁵ C

Explanation:

Due to being made up of matter, the planet Earth has a series of positive and negative charges, in general these charges should be balanced and the net charge of the planet should be zero, but there are several phenomena that introduce unbalanced charges, for example:

* ionized particles from the sun.

* interactions in radiation belts.

* the friction of the planet in the solar wind

This creates that the planet has a net electrical load

We can roughly calculate the charge of the planet

             E = k q / r²

             q = E r² / k

let's calculate

             q = 200 (6.37 10⁶)²/9 10⁹

              q = +9 10⁵ C