Re: How to test *your* microwave oven distribution pattern. (fwd)

[Jim Choate <ravage@EINSTEIN.ssz.com>]

Forwarded message:

> Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1998 16:24:21 -0800
> From: Michael Motyka <mmotyka@lsil.com>
> Subject: Re: How to test *your* microwave oven distribution pattern.

> Wrong metaphor for RF energy.

You said more than you know with that one.

> It's not water. A ground is not a storm
> drain.

>From the perspective of the flow of charge that is a very good metaphor.
Charge flows from the high charge area to the low charge area *always* and
ground is by definition the lowest charge area there is. Just like water
*always* flows from the high PE to the low PE.

> Imagine two conductive spheres ( earth and moon ? ) and an RF generator
> in a box sitting *peacefully* in space. Classical 3-body problem.

That's gravity, not electrostatics. There are no intractable problems
regarding n-body electrostatics issues as there is with gravity. Now of
course in the real world we can't get one without the other, but you didn't
mention that aspect.

> The DC
> potential that exists between any of them has absolutley no effect on a
> wave travelling anywhere

DC potentials have no effect on a wave anyway, they don't emit photons. They
are a physical representation of a line intergral. The potential between two
points is not effected by the path taken to get between the two points.

> ( unless you want to get into the topic of
> nonlinear materials ). 

Bullshit.

> So forget about everything in the scene except
> that generator in the box.

Then why in hell did you bring it up in the first place.

I smell spin doctor bullshit coming....

> Shielding consists solely of preventing the
> wave from getting out of the box into free space where it can be
> detected. There is nothing special about *any* of the DC references.

There is no wave with DC. If you want to make a wave you have to *move* the
DC field generator or the measurement device.

Now the charge that is *in* the box will leak to the outside of the shield
*even if it's an insulator*, it's called charge tunneling.

> Earth may be special ( source of women and beer ) but not to a wave.

Depends on a wave of what. If we're talking electrostatics then yes Earth is
special. I would direct you to many of Nikola Tesla's work on this exact
topic but you probably wouldn't read it. It's special because the Earth
itself has a charge and that interacts with the charge on the box. If the
charges are opposite they attract and the box moves toward the Earth (the
Earth moves toward the box as well but the delta rho is inconsequential so
we usualy ignore it). If the charges are identical then the two move apart.


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