May 21, 2012, 12:16:55 PM
Welcome,
Guest
. Please
login
or
register
.
1 Hour
1 Day
1 Week
1 Month
Forever
Login with username, password and session length
News
:
Home
Help
Search
Login
Register
Optoelectronics, Optics, Lights and Lasers
>
Non-Coherent Light Sources
>
Natural Light Sources
>
Can you steal electrons from the outlet?
Pages: [
1
]
« previous
next »
Print
Author
Topic: Can you steal electrons from the outlet? (Read 402 times)
wants_to_advance_t
Newbie
Posts: 2
Can you steal electrons from the outlet?
«
on:
June 20, 2011, 02:13:59 PM »
i heard that the electrons move back and forth-AC-in the outlets....and that you can use the electrons but they go back to the outlets through the wire....but can you steal them and not let them go back to the factory's electrical lines??...or could that bring up a higher bill?....or not, but ruin the electrical lines?...idk....does it matter if you take those ac moving electrons and use them like in a tesla coil that shoots them in the air as lightning???....idk.....?........
??............ANOTHER QUESTION-----why is it that the photons from light sources or other stuff can heat up stuff and burn and destroy stuff, but other photons as the ones from a high power magnetic field dont make any heat or burn and are invisible-unoticable[although you can sense it in brain]
....is it because those photons are in a different way?...but how would that make all the difference?
??
no no no no....i meant cant you take the electrons right from the outlet and have them go through a tesla coil and release a lightning bolt of electrons[which were from the outlet]?
OH ALSO TO EXPLAIN THE QUESTION BETTER I MEANT---imagine a big laser beam shooting out light, that would fry everything!....but im asking why a strong magnetic field doesnt do anything? both are made of photons!!!!! SO?
??
Logged
Andrew_Smith
Newbie
Posts: 16
Re: Can you steal electrons from the outlet?
«
Reply #1 on:
June 24, 2011, 12:37:56 AM »
You can't steal electrons. The description of AC is not accurate. The charges flow all the way from the power station through the equipment and back to the power station. Although each electron doesn't move far it is only able to move if the other electrons ahead of it also move.
After this continues for some time ( 1/100 of a second) the DIRECTION reverses but the electrons still must make a complete loop.
So if the chain is broken at any point then the rest of the electrons stop flowing. Hence no electricity.
All photons CAN heat things up. The energy of each photon is lower at lower frequencies but if you have enough of them they still have their effects. A microwave oven is well capable of heating things.
Now some other issues. If the waves can pass through a material without interacting then they won't heat that material. Light passes through glass so it doesn't heat glass.
UV doesn't pass through glass so it DOES heat the glass.
At various frequencies the radiation may not interact with a human body and those frequencies will not heat it significantly.
X-rays significantly pass though a body so they would add only a small amount of heat.
UV is absorbed at the skin so it will heat the skin not the bodies interior.
Waves from a mobile phone pass through skin etc but they are absorbed by wet tissues such as the brain. These are capable of producing localized heating in areas of the brain if the signal strength is great enough.
Logged
Matthew
Newbie
Posts: 13
Re: Can you steal electrons from the outlet?
«
Reply #2 on:
June 24, 2011, 09:58:59 AM »
That is way to many questions to answer here, you'll have to take some science classes and learn those things over time.
Yes, technically you can steal electricity, but not by taking electrons. You'd have to place a properly-built coil underneath a high-voltage AC line. The magnetic flux from the AC line would induce a voltage in the coil, which you could then connect to a device. This would show up on the generator's meters, but not the house meter.
You can not steal electrons. Electricity doesn't work that way. Electrons naturally like to be evened out. When there is a difference in the number of electrons in different places, there is a charge or "voltage" between them. When the points with different numbers of electrons are connected by a material which conducts electricity, the electrons flow from an area of high concentration (the - ) to an area of low concentration ( the +). The electrons themselves aren't generated and cannot be "stolen" they already existed in the wires and materials. Generators don't make electrons, they just move the electrons around to encourage them to flow through a circuit.
Also, magnetism is not the same thing as light.
Logged
Aaron
Newbie
Posts: 20
Re: Can you steal electrons from the outlet?
«
Reply #3 on:
June 24, 2011, 10:24:51 AM »
You should make separate questions for the two questions you have.
First, you "steal" electrons all the time. Whenever you rub against a carpet and create static electric charge, you are creating a charge imbalance. So if you walk away from the carpet after rubbing on it, you might be stealing electrons. And when you touch a door-knob and get shocked, the charge imbalance is removed. In fact, the spark you see when you get shocked is the same phenomenon as lightning.
However, this simply isn't practical or meaningful in the context of electricity. The charge buildup is almost negligible and no meaningful work can be done. Why would you want to steal electrons?
Second, whether a photon is in the visible spectrum depends on its energy. It just so happened that life evolved to use a very particular range of light in the spectrum of electromagnetic waves - because of the selective transmittance of the light from the sun in the Earth's atmosphere.
Infrared light heats up molecules by exciting chemical bonds - specifically, it induces higher vibrational energies in atoms when an IR photon is absorbed. Other wavelengths of light can be absorbed, then the energy dispersed via vibronic relaxation as well.
Magnetic fields can introduce heat into molecules as well. Remember that light is an electromagnetic wave, and the magnetic component can lead to molecular motion as well. If a molecule has a magnetic dipole moment, the magnetic component will induce motion in it.
===Addendum===
That's not "stealing electrons" then, if you want to use your outlet to power a Tesla coil. That's the same as plugging in any other electrical appliance.
It's also somewhat incorrect to say that light is "made of" photons - it's just one way to represent light. Neither light nor magnetic field is "made of photons." Photons is what mediates electromagnetic interaction.
Finally, light has both electrical and magnetic field components, and IS NOT THE SAME as either one of those. The electric and magnetic fields interact via "virtual photons," which is not the same as a real photon. It is really difficult to explain this over a web forum, as there is limited time/space/attention span. Students take YEARS to understand this concept and the different theories that apply, not to mention that physicists have spent entire CAREERS in coming up with these theories. I would suggest you begin not by jumping on the deep end, but starting with fundamental, classical interpretations of light. Only then can further information such as the wave-particle duality of light can be understood.
Logged
Pages: [
1
]
Print
« previous
next »
Jump to:
Please select a destination:
-----------------------------
General Category
-----------------------------
=> About PhotonicsLab.Org
=> Optical News
-----------------------------
The Science of Light
-----------------------------
=> Theory and Properties of Light
=> Optics
=> Holography
-----------------------------
Non-Coherent Light Sources
-----------------------------
=> Natural Light Sources
=> Combustion
=> Incandescent Lamps
=> Chemical Lights
=> Fluorescent Lamps
=> Gas Discharge Lamps
=> High Intensity Discharge Lamps
=> Electroluminescent Lamps
=> Radioluminescence
=> Other Light Sources
-----------------------------
Coherent Light Sources
-----------------------------
=> Gas Lasers
=> Solid Lasers
=> Liquid Lasers
=> Semiconductor Lasers
-----------------------------
General Talk
-----------------------------
=> Community chat
=> Arts Culture and Lifestyle
=> Sports Games and Entertainment
=> Science and Technology
=> Health and Medicine
Loading...