The lighter creates a tiny spark which jumps from one thread to another in the front pair. This spark creates electromagnetic waves, with the two wires serving the transmission antennas to amplify the waves. The two wires at the rear are the reception antennas, and they will produce an electric current as with the Hertz wire loop. Instead of creating a spark on the receiver, on my device, the bulb will light up. The neon bulb is really nice because it is high voltage but at low current, which is exactly what we need.
Ok, the lights came out! This is what it looks like when you pull this spark.
It may seem trivial, but that is not the case. You actually send the two And Receive electromagnetic waves.
Science, what is it for?
When Hertz showed its experimental verification of Maxwell equations, the scientific community knew that it was cool and the general public became curious. Journalists, of course, pragmatists – expressed what he could be used for. His answer:
“It is useless … It’s just an experience that proves that Maestro Maxwell was right – we just have these mysterious electromagnetic waves that we cannot see with the naked eye. But they are there. “
Why waste money on experiences if they are not useful? Well, the honest truth is that that’s not why we are doing science. Human nature makes us explorers. We ask questions and seek answers. It’s just one of the things that make us who are. Sometimes the answers are false (it turns out that the sun not Cross the sky in a tank drawn by white horses), but we are still looking for better.
And sometimes science is accidentally useful. In fact, you are probably using the results of Hertz’s experience at the moment. He not only shown that Maxwell’s equations were legitimate, but he actually invented the first radio transmitter. (The radio waves are only a slice of the electromagnetic spectrum.) This was then used for the wireless telegraph which allowed people to communicate with ships at sea using the Morse code. After that, people understood how to send music and soap operas and advertisements via radio waves, so that we now call it “radio”. There was also this thing called television which could broadcast motion images in space.
But it doesn’t stop there! Since the device sends electromagnetic waves that reflect objects, you can measure how long it takes for the signal to come back, which tells you how far they are – ie, radar and lidar, which is used in autonomous cars. And of course, mobile phone transmissions, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are all electromagnetic waves. It is literally everywhere – you swim in an electromagnetic wave sea.
So if the United States spends money for science, will it increase benefits and economic growth? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. There are a lot of interesting discoveries without real application. I mean, look at the gravitational waves detected by collizing black holes. Will this lead to a new type of internet or something? Probably not. But we are really richer to find out.