Wireless Power
Jonathan Fildes writes at BBC News about wireless power, a new way to recharge laptops, mobile phones etc. without using wires.
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The concept exploits century-old physics and could work over distances of many metres, the researchers said.
Although the team has not built and tested a system, computer models and mathematics suggest it will work.
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The answer the team came up with was “resonance”, a phenomenon that causes an object to vibrate when energy of a certain frequency is applied.
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“When you have two resonant objects of the same frequency they tend to couple very strongly,” Assistant Professor Marin Soljacic from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology told the BBC News website.
Resonance can be seen in musical instruments for example.
“When you play a tune on one, then another instrument with the same acoustic resonance will pick up that tune, it will visibly vibrate,” he said.
Instead of using acoustic vibrations, the team’s system exploits the resonance of electromagnetic waves. Electromagnetic radiation includes radio waves, infrared and X-rays.