MIT and foil hats
Turns out, they actually amplify signals. I think MIT got it wrong. You’re supposed to use two layers with the shiny side out.
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
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January 23rd, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Thank you for not repeating the canard of the “tin” foil hat. As all self respecting scientists know, and most crazy people admit, the metal used in a foil hat is aluminum. Pure, shiny, elemental aluminum.
And Reynolds brand works better than the store brands, even though it is more expensive.
January 23rd, 2010 at 12:44 pm
Two layers would definitely help, but the real problem is that the face isn’t covered. Even from behind or the top, with the radio waves incident on the covered part of the head, you get some diffraction off the edges that will scatter waves into your face, through your head, then back to the inside of the aluminum foil hat. At that point, they are essentially collected and focused back into your head. What the paranoid-American community needs is a tinfoil ski mask with eye shades, small breathing holes, and a long neck cover. That’ll keep those pesky radio waves out of their brains!
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:08 pm
The standard tinfoil hat is capable of acting as a resonant cavity for radio waves, thus concentrating them. But it only functions for some frequencies. We need a proper research project to discover whether the brain-control frequencies match one of these resonant frequencies. If they don’t, foil hats will still function as advertised.
Personally, I’d go for a copper- or silver-foil hat. Just as protective, and more stylish.
January 23rd, 2010 at 2:27 pm
I would not worry much about a resonant cavity at “brain control frequencies.” Wet computational centers are relatively slow, and the maximum frequency so far noted is below 7,000 cycles, er, Hertz. (The brain gets around this with parallel processing on a grand scale)
For an off the top of my head calculation, the long dimension of a resonant cavity defined by the speed of light divided by frequency; half of 300,000,000 Meters per second divided by 7,000; just under 21,500 km. I would like to see the lathe that could turn that.
But if you must – silver is the better conductor. Line it with a thick layer of carbon fiber to act as an RF absorbent.
Stranger
January 23rd, 2010 at 2:38 pm
Lead foil, lead will even shield kryptonite
January 23rd, 2010 at 2:43 pm
It’s comforting to know that thoughtful attention is being paid to this issue. Stranger, I agree with your principle, but don’t overlook the overtones.
The thing is, the foil. The right material for this application is metallic mesh with itty-bitty holes, like what used to be used in gaseous diffusion. One would think that there would be plenty of that on the surplus market as the national nuclear weapons capability winds down, unless that hardware has already been directed elsewhere. Weaving that, of nickel and austenitic stainless, was one of the great technical hurdles of Manhattan.
Anybody got a connection inside Oak Brook?
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:19 pm
That study was well debunked here 😉
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:55 pm
If I was an employer and saw that the applicant got a phd doing this foolishness; I would probably not choose to hire him or her.
January 23rd, 2010 at 4:00 pm
I used to have a tooth filling that received radio frequency waves. Was quite disconcerting, cause me to believe a foil hat wouldn’t be much use as a blocker. I lost the tooth, but removal of the head seems a bit extreme, just take off the hat.
January 23rd, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Comatus hit the nail on the head. What he is describing is a Faraday cage, a metal mesh enclosure that would block all radio frequencies. They are often constructed to decrease electronic noise in labs that need to detect very small signals.
Copper mesh will work fine for this purpose. It is much more readily available than isotope diffusion meshes.
I’m sticking with the aluminum foil, though. Because I have a lot left over from cooking that big bird at Thanksgiving. And because of the signals……
January 24th, 2010 at 10:35 am
Aw for crying out loud, where’s the ground? Ok, your tinfoil catches the mind-bending waves but where are they supposed to go? You need to send them to ground. I use a length of copper sash chain that runs down inside my pantsleg and drags behind my right foot.
January 25th, 2010 at 12:06 am
Mikee, again I must urge caution on those pesky overtones. That’s why single-micron austenitic is the only sure choice, though a sieve will do in a pinch.
nk, duh, jeeze, the waves won’t even enter a Faraday. They just zztboom bounce right off. I do, however, approve of your grounding strap. Could prevent an embarrassing static snap someday. Uncontrolled static accounts for most sudden failures of personal electonics to include pacemakers, and is probably a factor in spontaneous human combustion. I remember when most cars had them. If it works for Sunoco tankers…
‘Til next time, seekers. I was right about the Comet!