4 ms·

Isn't this what capacitors do?

• mrfusion 11y ago
  But they can't get anywhere near this energy level. Why not make a piece of metal .xx1% charged and encase it in a big insulator, glass? Seems like it would be an awesome battery no?
  • poizan42 11y ago
    Because we don't know how to make it 0.xx1% charged and keep it that way until you need the energy.
    • mrfusion 11y ago
      How about the van de graf generator?
      • dalke 11y ago
        No, a Van de Graaff generator doesn't get anywhere close to 0.xx1% charged. As the article says, loosing 1% of electrons leads to a voltage potential of 40 exavolts. As https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_de_Graaff_generator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_de_Graaff_generator points out, the best a Van de Graaff generator can do is "about 25 megavolts" due to "arcing and corona discharge." The sequence is mega-, giga-, tera-, peta-, exa-. That corresponds to 0.000,000,000,000,1% charge, though you should double check me as I'm not used to working with that many powers of ten.