Free electricity...from thin air

[The Dude]

http://anonym.to?http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/915226/autoPlay/free_electricity_from_thin_air.swf

Quite interesting!

[nav33n]

Interesting indeed !

[The Dude]

Some say its fake,i dunno what to think anymore :D

[twomers]

What would be more interesting would be if he measured the current from it. Getting the voltage is fine, but what will tell you how feasible it is to power your phone is not voltage, but current.

The concept of getting voltage is fine, but the phone is a hoax, I'd imagine. I'll make the circuit on Monday in college and report back.

[vegaseat]

With a large enough antenna you should get a decent current. I would use different diodes though.

However, during the day a solar cell would be better.

[twomers]

Sure, with a big enough antenna. But his was a few centimeters long.

>> However, during the day a solar cell would be better.
Depending on your country and if you were outside. But I agree with you.

[jwenting]

so the guy just invented a radio receiver, so what?

It's an obvious hoax, well known to be utterly useless. You may get a few millivolts and a few microamperes maybe that way.
To get anything usefull you need massive coils and suspend them within a few meters of a transmission line.
Not only is that illegal, it's also incredibly dangerous and expensive.

[sneekula]

Using a huge antenna during a thunderstorm will give you free electricty, but it is somewhat dangerous.

[Bushido Hacks]

Some say its fake,i dunno what to think anymore :D

It is possible. Nikola Tesla though of something like that. Some say that the writings he wrote about it were lost in a fire.

Meanwhile,Popular Science had this article last month on their website.

[The Dude]

An interesting article indeed!

Thank you :)

[jbennet]

It is possible. Nikola Tesla though of something like that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX5V_9s0Gfw

[GrimJack]

There is nothing in that demo that is remarkable. He could be using the 60cycle (50 outside of the US) hum from household wiring; he could be taking from a local fm antena. w/o isolation there is no way to tell which part of the e/m spectrum he is taking his energy from. If it is local (earth-produced) then someone is paying to put power into the signal so it is not really free.

This is not really free either but...look here for real 'free' energy Nano-fibers could power your iPod . In Japan, they have installed piezoelectric mats under the turnstiles of their subway system to harness the power of those millions of commuters that walk through the turnstiles every day - similar projects are being tested in the hallways of apartment complexes.

It never ceases to amaze me that someone is always chasing free energy rather than trying to harness the little increments of energy we waste every day. If we were to insulate all the transmission lines around the country, there would be about 10% gain over the whole system. Like putting a generator on your bicycle to produce light - it seems like 'free' light but damn, it sure makes biking harder; but if you take just a little bit of energy from everyone (like the Japanese subway) no-one notices the extra work and adds up to quite a bit of energy.

[jbennet]

if you all changed over to 240v like us, you could save like 45% of power loss

[GrimJack]

if you all changed over to 240v like us, you could save like 45% of power loss

Yeah! That's what we get for being early adopters - Edison went around the country electrocuting dogs to prove how dangerous AC was compared to DC (guess which ol' TA was pushing) so we wired for 120 to be 'safer'. But Edison did give our judicial system an idea about executions.

[denny245]

Many years ago a rancher/farmer was arrested for stealing electricity from his local power company. There were giant high voltage power lines passing through his property. He simply ran a copper wire for many feet pararell to the high tension power lines using the ground as the return. Got away with it for many years powering his farm.

[dexter737]

Thanks for sharing. Its Like the Simpson :)