Question

Does the Sun exert an electromagnetic force on the Earth? I read that the earth has a total charge of -1 C, and i also read that its compleyely neutral. magnetic force is qVxB and i know electric force is kqq/r^2. please give an advanced answer Im very good with math (past calc3 and differential equations in a garduate level differential equations class now) and i understand a lot about electricity and magnetism up through physics 2 with calculus... the sun is constantly releasing charged particles and earths magnetic field deflects them but wouldnt this have a forcw on earth? if the eart applies even a very small force to these particles to deflect them wouldnt it be a very small force on the earth? and what about from just the suns magnetic field with earth having a velocity it should be qVxB

Answer 1

The answer is Yes. This doesn't readily have a mathematical answer, but various phenomena can be explained using electromagnetic force on the Earth by the Sun such as the Auroras we see. These are basically due to the fact that when charged particles from the sun strike atoms in Earth's atmosphere, they cause electrons in the atoms to move to a higher energy state. When the electrons drop back to a lower energy state, they release a photon and we can see aurora. This indeed proves the existence of Sun's electromagnetic force on Earth.