course_planning:184_projects:s17_project_1 [Projects & Practices in Physics]

===== Project 1 =====

{{183_projects:thunder.jpg}}

==== Project 1A: Chasing a Thundercloud ====

You and your group are a team of storm chasers tracking a massive thundercloud moving across the plains and into the mountains beside the town of Lakeview. You grab your handy-dandy high voltage probe ([[https://www.atecorp.com/ATECorp/media/ProductImages/L/Tektronix-P6015A_L.png|like this one]]) and radio, then drive from your headquarters 250 m until you are directly under the storm cloud. Thankfully, your team already calibrated the voltmeter to 0 V when the storm cloud was very far away. From your training, you know that if the electric field is bigger than 3 MV/m (also called the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dielectric_strength|dielectric breakdown of air]]), the air will become a conductor and lightning will strike. You need to determine if a) you are safe from lightning under the thundercloud and b) if the lightning rod on top of the storm-chaser headquarters will be hit. The master storm chaser and part-time civil engineer, Edric Storm, tells you that the storm-chaser headquarters is 200 m tall.

<WRAP info>
===Learning Goals - Project 1A:===
  * Understand what the $\vec{r}$ is, how to calculate it, and how it relates to $\hat{r}$
  * Become familiar with the ideas of electric field and electric potential
  * Explain the differences between electric field and electric potential
  * Explain how electric field and electric potential are related
</WRAP>