> My guess is still ... that because of the enormous capacitance of the earth, the light bulb would still light up even though no clear circuit is formed. Your

> My guess is still ... that because of the enormous capacitance of the earth, the light bulb would still light up even though no clear circuit is formed. Your statement implies that you are viewing the earth as a huge, perfect, capacitor. And by "perfect" I mean no series resistance. In reality, the earth is a relatively poor electrical conductor (i.e., a high resistance [1]) and so where your mental model breaks is omitting that resistance from consideration in your model. I.e., the equivalent circuit your 'experiment' produces would be: G-----bulb------R--C The "R" and "C" above are the capacitance and resistance of the earth. Yes, there is an amount of C present, but there is also a quite large series "R" present as well. And it is that resistance that results in a very limited current flow from your theoretical experiment. Too low of a flow to illuminate the bulb. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_resistivity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_resistivity