Remote electricity...

[nickeley102]

another sciency topic

 

 

 

Nowadays you can control most things over a distance, you can use the internet, change the channel on your tv, unlock your car and even change the temperature in a room over a distance. The thing that has bugged me is that the only thing restricting us from freeing ourselves from the nuisance of plugs and wires is power.

 

 

 

All sorts of restrictions would need to be put in place if wireless electricity was introduced, you wouldnt want passers by to be able to use your power bill to charge their phone and use their george foreman grill, if they were standing just outside your house but within the wireless range. You would probably end up needing to enter a pin every time you wanted to use an appliance, but it would still be worth it.

 

 

 

I was thinking about why this would not be possible and i was struck with an idea, isnt that what the sun does? provide us with electricity from afar. But this electricity is harmful in large doses and requires an impractically large reciever (a solar panel). But if it were possible to somehow* make the radiation stronger and not detrimental would it be possibleto have wireless power?

 

 

 

Im sure much smarter people have considered this, i was hoping some smart tipiter could take a break from all the nostalgic and celebrity topics and enlighten me on some of the restrictions and also the possibilities.

 

 

 

*this is where im afraid my argument falls to pieces

[warri0r45]

You're mixing up electricity (electrons running through a metal wire) and electromagnetic (EM) radiation. They are completely distinct energies. You can't possibly utilise electricity like we do EM radiation in the form of the signals that work your remote, etc.

 

 

 

The stuff that comes from the sun is EM radiation, not electricity.

 

 

 

Sorry to tell you, but your whole post is fatally flawed.

 

 

 

Edit: Here's the difference between the two.

 

 

 

Electricity - notice the part that says electricity travels in circuits.

 

 

 

EM Radiation - This is the stuff that radiates freely through space. No circuits here.

[Cup Lion]

I doubt the sun could be used as a "wireless" energy source, so to speak. This is because the sun emits energy via heat and light. We would have to transform that heat/light energy into energy useable by appliances. This would kind of mean we would have to have solar panels on everything. The casts of most objects would have to be made of solar panels. I doubt we have the money, and the time, to do all that, just to create a wireless energy source, which might not necessarily be more productive/useful.

 

 

 

No more power plugs, whoop! But wait, I bet the cost of covering your George Foreman Grill in solar panels is not worth walking over to the outlets and plugging it in.

[dsavi]

My dad was telling me a while ago about how someone had managed to wirelessly light a light bulb, but the range of the power was about ~1m or something. I would have to look that up, don't quote me on that.

[urbestfreind]

It's already happening...

 

 

 

I get a subscription to quite a few magazines, and I remember reading quite a few articles, mostly in Popular Mechanics (Scientific American also had a good article about it IIRC), about how wireless electricity is coming closer to public release.

 

 

 

Wikipedia has a decent article that talks about the underlying concepts between wireless energy.

 

 

 

After a bit of searching, I found the Scientific American article about the light bulb they powered electrically.

[stan18]

My dad was telling me a while ago about how someone had managed to wirelessly light a light bulb, but the range of the power was about ~1m or something. I would have to look that up, don't quote me on that.

 

 

 

its actually a basic physics lab demonstration - a current can be induced if you have a changing magnetic field, so you could induce an alternating magnetic field with an AC current and some wires, and the lightbulb would have to be in a complete circuit

[assassin_696]

For your idea to work you'd need to create a huge potential difference between the two sources, then allow the charge to "jump" between the two points in a sudden burst. This is the basic principle behind lightning, but for this to be controlled and useable would be probably very challenging. For a start the two sources couldn't be particularly far away, the potential difference would have to be huge and the transmission would be very dangerous.

[tzone92]

I doubt the sun could be used as a "wireless" energy source, so to speak. This is because the sun emits energy via heat and light. We would have to transform that heat/light energy into energy useable by appliances. This would kind of mean we would have to have solar panels on everything. The casts of most objects would have to be made of solar panels. I doubt we have the money, and the time, to do all that, just to create a wireless energy source, which might not necessarily be more productive/useful.

 

 

 

No more power plugs, whoop! But wait, I bet the cost of covering your George Foreman Grill in solar panels is not worth walking over to the outlets and plugging it in.

 

 

 

But the sun IS a great "wireless" energy source. Once we develop better, smaller, more efficient solar panels, then there will be no need for plugs or outlets.

[Will H]

As said before, electricity requires a conducting circuit to get anywhere, apart from in dangerously high amounts. EM Radiation doesn't need anything to get anywhere.

 

 

 

But, you could use them together. The section where the energy must be wirelessly sent could be projected as a beam of EM radiation and then converted into electricity at the appliance. However, I have my reservations if such radiation can be transmitted in quantities big enough to power, say, a kettle, but not harm humans in the way. Remote controls only get away with it because it doesn't aim to transfer actual energy, just enough to send data, so only very small amounts need to be sent.

[Randox]

It can easily be done, though its already been pointed out that the sun is useless for this. A tesla coil set to a high enough voltage can transmit AC power through air. You electric bill would go way up since air is an insulator. The voltage needed would rise as an exponential function with distance from the source.

 

 

 

Basicly its done with induction, but this means any air between source and reciver is going to be ionized and thus dangerous.

[Faux]

Great idea, but I think we have enough cancer-causing machine. Can you just imagine the radiation that will come off it?

[nickeley102]

after reading your posts and the wikipedia article i still think it is a real possibility to have wireless electricity for a household, please ignore my obvious scientific shortcomings in the original post.

 

 

 

I only used the sun as an example of energy being converted to electricity over a distance, not implying that everyone should have a small localised star in their house.

 

 

 

Wouldnt it be liberating to have no more cords? obviously there are some barriers there, but didnt arthur c. clarke say in his three rules of prediction that anyone who says something is impossible is invariably wrong

[Mischlings]

There was an article in Popular Science about this a while ago. From my sketchy memory (I'd have to dig around to find it), it worked by running electricity through a coil, which converted the electrical energy to sound energy. The sound was directed to another, identical coil, at which point it would be converted back to electrical energy. If I remember correctly, researchers at MIT were able to light a lightbulb from about 7 feet away.

 

 

 

All this is based on an article I read ~5 months ago, so I might not be remembering things properly, so try not to burn me at the stake if I'm wrong. My memory is slightly faulty.

[kickbuta]

There was an article in Popular Science about this a while ago. From my sketchy memory (I'd have to dig around to find it), it worked by running electricity through a coil, which converted the electrical energy to sound energy. The sound was directed to another, identical coil, at which point it would be converted back to electrical energy. If I remember correctly, researchers at MIT were able to light a lightbulb from about 7 feet away.

 

 

 

All this is based on an article I read ~5 months ago, so I might not be remembering things properly, so try not to burn me at the stake if I'm wrong. My memory is slightly faulty.

 

 

 

Do you mean to say that we can convert sound energy into usable electricity? Because that sounds quite interesting.

[anonymous1234]

Cheerleaders would make a fortune!

[Lenin64]

Cheerleaders would make a fortune!

 

Forget cheerleaders, just build the plant in my neighbor's house.

[warri0r45]

Looks like I was wrong.

 

 

 

http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=ge ... =ADA239988

 

 

 

Here's a way to transmit electricity through air - make air part of the circuit by ionizing it with some form of EM radiation.

 

 

 

http://www.hsvt.org/faq.html#t3

 

 

 

Looks like they use UV radiation to do the ionization. Makes sense, scientifically speaking (higher energy means greater potential for ionization).

 

 

 

In a household setting, you're better off using wires. It's really not that much of a nuisance compared to running into the electrical circuit itself or getting a healthy dose of UV radiation.

 

 

 

And as for the wireless energy lightbulb, technically it's not wireless electricity because the form of energy being transmitted is a magnetic field, which induces the flow of electricity in the receiver. Neat idea, though.

[Laura]

Possible, but it'd be far more efficient to pass it though a different medium, such as copper. And who says you actually have to pass an electronic current though air to get wireless "electricity" at the opposite end? Using something like infrared would be possible. Even using vibration to pass along a specific point at the receiver and convert it to electricity would be possible.

[Will H]

Looks like I was wrong.

 

 

 

http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=ge ... =ADA239988

 

 

 

Here's a way to transmit electricity through air - make air part of the circuit by ionizing it with some form of EM radiation.

 

 

 

http://www.hsvt.org/faq.html#t3

 

 

 

Looks like they use UV radiation to do the ionization. Makes sense, scientifically speaking (higher energy means greater potential for ionization).

 

 

 

In a household setting, you're better off using wires. It's really not that much of a nuisance compared to running into the electrical circuit itself or getting a healthy dose of UV radiation.

 

 

 

And as for the wireless energy lightbulb, technically it's not wireless electricity because the form of energy being transmitted is a magnetic field, which induces the flow of electricity in the receiver. Neat idea, though.

 

Haha, clever. I forgot about magnetism. But wouldn't it interfere with various appliances (TVs for instance)?

[Mischlings]

There was an article in Popular Science about this a while ago. From my sketchy memory (I'd have to dig around to find it), it worked by running electricity through a coil, which converted the electrical energy to sound energy. The sound was directed to another, identical coil, at which point it would be converted back to electrical energy. If I remember correctly, researchers at MIT were able to light a lightbulb from about 7 feet away.

 

 

 

All this is based on an article I read ~5 months ago, so I might not be remembering things properly, so try not to burn me at the stake if I'm wrong. My memory is slightly faulty.

 

 

 

Do you mean to say that we can convert sound energy into usable electricity? Because that sounds quite interesting.

 

 

 

I would guess it's possible, just not in that way. I looked it up again online, and it was converted into EM radiation, then back into electricity. It used the coils in the same way, but it wasn't sound energy.

[Laura]

There was an article in Popular Science about this a while ago. From my sketchy memory (I'd have to dig around to find it), it worked by running electricity through a coil, which converted the electrical energy to sound energy. The sound was directed to another, identical coil, at which point it would be converted back to electrical energy. If I remember correctly, researchers at MIT were able to light a lightbulb from about 7 feet away.

 

 

 

All this is based on an article I read ~5 months ago, so I might not be remembering things properly, so try not to burn me at the stake if I'm wrong. My memory is slightly faulty.

 

 

 

Do you mean to say that we can convert sound energy into usable electricity? Because that sounds quite interesting.

 

 

 

I would guess it's possible, just not in that way. I looked it up again online, and it was converted into EM radiation, then back into electricity. It used the coils in the same way, but it wasn't sound energy.

 

Ever heard of piezoelectric? Using piezoelectric plates, made out of fine quarts crystals. Their orderly atomic structure makes it possible to convert mechanical stress into sound. So turning vibrations of any kind, into usable electricity is possible.

[Furah]

EDIT: sorry bout that warri0r, am tired and didn't see the other post :oops: (must stop posting so late)

 

 

 

anyways, if they can power my WHOLE room wirelessly and no harmful effects for me, then I'll be impressed