Physicist moots wireless electricity

ABC ^ | 15 Nov 2006 | Anna Salleh

[dalight]

Now thats funny. But, I still don't know about being anywhere near these puppies. They sound like lawsuit magnets.

[CarrotAndStick]

All hell breaks loose when such electric fields start ruining sensitive equipment like HDD actuators and digital cameras, and any circuit with a wayward coil of wire to get energised ruinously by induced currents!

[WildBill2275]

I've been reading science fiction for years and a lot of those stories had wireless power transmission. And in a fictional world you can ignore inconvenient realities, like for example the Inverse Square Law. But I guess if you can get around that, the "magical" frequency would be a good thing to have.

[FLOutdoorsman]

On a side topic, 'magical' frequencies have long been speculated with having the ability to levitate objects.

[Thrownatbirth]

My First Law of Electromagnetics: If it's new, it will ALWAYS adversely affect the ham radio bands.

[delacoert]

ROFL

Warning: Even though these microwaves are about as harmful as the leakage from an ordinary microwave oven (not much), do not put computers, televisions, other sensitive electrical equipment, food, liquids, paper, glass, flammable substances, magnets, or living things in between the base and satellite units. Just in case.

[isthisnickcool]

We're already swimming in multiple energy fields now (microwave, tv and radio signals, cells, radio transmissions, etc.) Sometimes I wonder what the cumulative effect all that radiated energy has on the human body.

Your comment reminds me of "Waldo" from the Robert A. Heinlein book "Waldo and Magic, Inc". It's one of Heinlein's novellas. Part of the story has to do with the problems from all the "stuff" being shot through people and what it does to them. It also has something called "deKalbs" (if I recall correctly) which are wireless energy devices.

I think Heinlein wrote "Waldo" in the 1940's.

Heinlien was, IMHO, one of the best science fiction writers ever. He's my personal favorite.

[UCANSEE2]

"He's using the non-electromagnetic part of the electromagnetic spectrum. :)"


Is that like using a football bat?

[LexBaird]

Instead of using traditional radiation, he wants to use the part of the electromagnetic field that is 'non-radiative'.

Will some physist out there explain untraditional, non-radiative radiation to me? Also how energy can be transmitted without being "radiated"?

[WildBill2275]

Wow! Does that mean that they won't kill me by stopping or damaging my pacemaker.

[NotADove]

bump from your alma mater:)

[Bigh4u2]

"Also how energy can be transmitted without being "radiated"?"

Carrier wave.

[Mike Darancette]

In other news; Tumors of the brain have shown a sharp increase in recent years. Medical experts have no explanation.

[arthurus]

Broadcast power seems inherently terribly inefficient. Only a tiny portion of the power broadcast could be used. Most would radiate into space that contains no receiver.

[Nevermore]

I'm an electrical engineer, not a physicist, but if it's not radiation then it's conduction. It is possible to have a fairly well directed EM field, but if it's not tightly directed then it is bathing the area in EM fields - even if it's the "non-radiative" kind, and even if the bodies or other devices in the field are not the intended energy sink. Controlling all that - avoiding unintended consequences - without a tightly directed field would be big problem.
I guess that there really is one other alternative to conduction or radiation, analogous to thermal convection, and that would be an electron beam. Any takers for that in their home?

[thackney]

Zot powered!

[LexBaird]

I was always taught that anything that originated at a source and propagated outward was said to "radiate". Even if closely focused, I don't see how projecting energy though space can be anything but "radiation".

It seems the author wants to avoid the association with radioactivity that the word "radiation' has, which freaks out the luddites over things such as irradiated food.

[nh1]

To use the electron beam over a distance of more than a few inches wouldn't it have to be extremely high energy resulting in some bothersome xrays. Or... would you pull a vacuum so that the electrons could travel further.

I'm not sure which I would prefer, a lead suit or a space suit. I think I may stick to an extension cord for now.

[SunkenCiv]

Wardenclyffe:

Google

[SunkenCiv]

---

UNPLUGGED. Alternating current fed into a wire loop (blue) generates a field that induces currents in the coil (red, at left), creating a magnetic field that reaches a second coil (red) several meters away (at right), creating a local field that induces a current in the second loop (blue), lighting a bulb. -- Science

---