Re: [ILUG] [OT] - Bandwidth provider...

From: Colm Buckley (colm at domain tuatha.org)
Date: Thu 25 May 2000 - 11:43:46 IST


Christian J. van den Bosch (cool name!) wrote:

> Call me paranoid, but...
>
> Wireless is all very well, but I wouldn't be happy using something
> working at 2.4 - 2.5 GHz (given that 2.45GHz (resonant frequency of
> water molecules) [...]

I got burned on some list, possibly even this one, for spreading this
misconception. The frequency at which a microwave oven operates
(2.45GHz) is *not* a resonant frequency of water, it's just a frequency
which water happens to absorb quite strongly. It's not a unique one,
either - pretty much any frequency in the range in question would work
well.

There's nothing intrinsically dangerous about µ-waves - remember that
wireless communication devices generally operate in the milliwatt range,
five to six orders of magnitude weaker than microwave ovens. The
sunlight shining on your head on a nice day has a *vastly* larger
effect.

See http://rabi.phys.virginia.edu/HTW/home_current.html for a nice
simple explanation (search for "microwaves").

        Colm

-- 
Colm Buckley BA BF | NewWorld Commerce, 44 Westland Row, Dublin 2, Ireland
colm at domain tuatha.org (personal) | colm.buckley at domain nwcgroup.com (business)
+353 87 2469146 | whois cb3765 | http://www.tuatha.org/~colm/
I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing.


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