said by Airplane777:pick up the rf energy to light their flourescent light bulbs in their homes.
I have lit many a flourescent bulbs under Hydro transmission lines. But Richard Box has made a prank into an artform. »
www.richardbox.com/Dr. Schute, a favourite prof at the U of A, did this trick at our first-year Electromagnetics class. He asked the only female student in our class to come to the front and take one 4ft bulb out of a package that had 2 bulbs.
She was holding it beside his desk when suddenly it lit up and the whole class gasped. She dropped the bulb and it shattered. He then repeated the experiment with the second bulb and explained how it worked.
[Edit] I was reminded that overhead power lines carrying 400kV creates a significant electrical field to the ground. This field creates the same effect as the ballast used to drive these flouroscent bulbs. There is no RF involved at all and these fields are harmless.
I was also told that a model airplane flew using only microwave power delivery right here in Ottawa at the CRC grounds.
500kW EIRP at 5Ghz was used.
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