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I was pondering while I was stuck on the ski lift in France, and I pondered the concept of a wireless power adapter. After a while, it began to make more and more sense...tell me what you think.

I first started thinking about sound. Sound is a form of energy, right? Right. They have invented wireless headphones capable of carrying sound wirelessly from, say, an iPod to the headphones on the person. I would think that this would be a relatively weak form of energy, though, so what if the wireless sound's power was harnessed and multiplied? Say, increase the sound that is broadcasted's power to the GHz range and send it to an adapter, where the sound is converted into electricity. I don't know what would be the source of the sound, but it would have to be powerful enough to generate a substantial amount of energy. Maybe one would use a CD player repeating a Rage Against the Machines song at full volume? ( )

Would this be possible? I would think that it would have to be tinkered with, but it does sound to me as if wireless power could be a possibility in the distant future.

this is comming from the voice of a scince schola

Short answere no. wireless head phones work as a means of infa-red waves that transmit what the sound will sond like the decoder in the headpones the decodes the infa-red tranmission and turns it into to sound energy only after the decoded transmission reached the speakers as a series of electrical impulses (easy to understand right)

O_o

Well, you just about squelched that idea...thanks anyways.

Check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_coil

It is possible; I can think of various ways that might work (using lasers for example). However they would all be inefficient, and quite difficult to implement.

David has hit the nail on the head... any possible gain from wireless electricity would be offset by the massive loss of power in the transmission.

So, technically, it IS possible...nice.

any possible gain from wireless electricity would be offset by the massive loss of power in the transmission.

Didn't think of that. Dang. In order for wireless energy to work, someone would have to create a new kind of energy for the specific use of traveling through air and keeping its original amount of energy, then transforming back to electricity. Blech. O_o

I think new forms of energy are due sometime around the next apocalypse.

actully there could be one possible way but instead of an infa-red beam you could use some slightly stronger form of radiation .... somewhere in the region of the electromagnetic spectrum between U-v and X-ray but this of course could be potentially dangerous

Deck_52 wrote:Short answere no. wireless head phones work as a means of infa-red waves that transmit what the sound will sond like the decoder in the headpones the decodes the infa-red tranmission and turns it into to sound energy only after the decoded transmission reached the speakers as a series of electrical impulses (easy to understand right)

What the hell?...
Anyways, sound should be able to create energy, the kind that comes from radios (I think thats what wireless headphones use, at least the Ipod Radio transmitter), are very weak. Lots of crazy people talk about those radio wave frequencys polluting space and screwing up things with aliens. Their waves are too long, just too weak other than to be read, translated and played by radios. But maybe the sound they create would have some sort of "force" to actually move things, power things.
The energy type would have to be generated energy, I would believe. Since their are no wires or anything, the kind of energy would have to be raw, unconverted power. I'm not sure about the power from tesla coils*, it would be cool if it was like Red Alert 2 where things could wirelessly charge the coils just by being near them (maybe a hazard problem). As it is, I think wireless energy would be things like wind power, solar power, water power, thermal power. I don't know the relationship between excited radiation from the sun and energy from lasers, but I imagine that both would create energy just the same (one being alot weaker form of energy).
There was an interesting exhibit at the tech museum, it showed a fan that was being powered wirelessly. It didn't have batteries, no power chords, completely wireless. So what was powering it? A lightbulb. Now, what would you call this? Is this wireless, I would think so. But what is really happening? All it is, is a small class solar generator, it's wireless but still completely dependent on the external power source. The same thing would happen if you put the fan outside, it would turn on and run just the same, maybe even better. Now, charging up something like your remote control car with a flashlight would be unnecesary and timeconsuming but hey, it's wireless.
Now would this be classified as wireless energy, I guess so. I mean, I wouldn't call windmills or hydroelectric dams wireless, but it is the same concept. Sound powered mills? Sounds fantasy, but if it has force (people actually get blown back from sound) hey, anythings possible. The only problem is that, you really don't gain anything by not having chords, at least not yet.

*Imagine waking up to an alarm clock powered by one of these, you'd wish you had a chord (that is, if you weren't completely insane).

I was going to mention telsa.. He was a great genious. Too bad he's dead.

Ledood really thought he had an unique idea there, didn't he?

you could use microwaves

David wrote:It is possible; I can think of various ways that might work (using lasers for example). However they would all be inefficient, and quite difficult to implement.

This the thing in this thread you need to read. It pretty much sums up the issue. transmiting electricity would be so inefficent that it wouldn't make sense to use. this is assuming it were possible to come up with a safe method of transporting energy.

Although it would be pretty awesome

If you wait a couple ten years, it might be becoming a weeeee bit more stable, but I don't think it would be usable. Not to mention un-userfriendly and dangerous.


... </evil idea>