5 ms·
Ok, dumb idea time: suppose that everyone in an office sits on a chair that raises their body to X volts. At the same time a collector mesh is provided at each
by ajb 6y ago
Ok, dumb idea time: suppose that everyone in an office sits on a chair that raises their body to X volts. At the same time a collector mesh is provided at each desk, at -X volts, but shielded so that you can't touch it and shock yourself.
What X is large enough to ensure that all the virus particles you cough out end up at the collector? Is it possible to do this without electrocuting everyone?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- vimax 6y agothat sounds kind of like what an ionized air purifier does
- imposterr 6y agoFree electrons tend to distribute themselves on an object as to minimize the repulsive forces between them. This usually means that they distribute evenly on the surface of objects. Humans are a bit more complicated in structure than say a metal ball, but my guess would be that there would be a similar situation where all the free electrons would just build up on the skin. Therefore, I don't think the particles one would cough up would be negatively charged.
- enchiridion 6y agoWould the particles get charged as they pass through the later of electrons?
- curryst 6y agoAlveoli are basically small air sacs in your lungs, so they're a surface (it's just an inverted ball, a hollow sphere in a not-so-solid object). No idea how that influences where the electrons go. I wonder how the nervous system would interact with that as synapses fire. I'm curious if they would build up, or if the synapses all over the body firing would make them bounce around constantly.
- progval 6y ago> Alveoli are basically small air sacs in your lungs, so they're a surface > No idea how that influences where the electrons go. Electrons don't specifically move toward surfaces, they move to be as far apart from each other, so internal surfaces don't count significantly. Saying they move toward surfaces is only true for convex objects (and they are evenly distributed when the object is a sphere). In the human body, they'll move toward extremities: hands, feet, tips of hairs, ... The latter is an easy to observe effect of static electricity, charges will apply pressure on the hairs and make them straight so they are as far away from the rest of the charges as possible. See the first image here for example: https://www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/item/how-does-static-electricity-work/ https://www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/item/how-does-static-...
- computator 6y agoThis seems to assume that virus particles are charged. If they are neutral, they wouldn't be driven in any direction by an electric field. Am I missing something? Is it known that virus particles have a charge?
- nkurz 6y agoI think you are missing the OP's assumption that by raising the subject's entire body to +X Volts, any virus particles they breath out will start out with this same positive charge. I'm not sure this assumption is true, but it seems plausible.
- mantap 6y agoIf you could really positively charge your whole body to +X volts wouldn't that interfere with your nervous system?
- dreamcompiler 6y agoNo. That's why birds can sit on power lines and these guys can do their jobs. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9YmFHAFYwmY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9YmFHAFYwmY
- sudosysgen 6y agoThe electric potential is relative. It's potential differences that matter.
- Adferdfqwer 6y agoEueu
- R0b0t1 6y agoParticles in the air respond to charges. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatic_precipitator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatic_precipitator
- ISL 6y agoX depends upon the distance between people. (and upon the propensity for the exhaled particles to be neutralized)
- saalweachter 6y agoThe mass difference between humans and viruses is something like 10^19. So if you take the naive approach -- which is wrong, because charges live on surfaces, not in volumes -- you would want the person to have about a coulumb of charge to ensure that 1 extra electron was allocated to each virus particle. Whether or not 1 electron per virus is enough is a separate question, but that gives you a lower bound -- if you are allocating, say, 0.1 electrons, only 10% of your virus particles will have a charge. Edit: so, given the capacitance of humans as 200 pF, that would be 5 gigavolts?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Apofis 6y agoSomebody get Elon on the horn, we have the world to save!
- ajb 6y agoWow, okay - that explains why we're not doing this already! I'm curious as to why this logic doesn't apply to the electrostatic precipitator. Or maybe it does and we just have too much capacitance? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatic_precipitator https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatic_precipitator ETA: the EP causes Corona discharge, which doesn't sound like it would be too pleasant if you were the electrode.
- saalweachter 6y agoUsing the size of aerosolized droplets (0.35-10um) and the mass of human skin (20 lbs) would knock two orders of magnitude off, and drop the floor estimate to 50 megavolts.
- Balgair 6y agoFor anyone wondering what a 50MV source looks like, one was actually built out in the desert near Joshua Tree in '54. Strangely, it was built for longevity research. Well, that and UFOs and anti-gravity, because of course: "The Multiple Wave Oscillator is a combination of a high voltage Tesla coil and a split-ring resonator that generates ultra wideband electromagnetic frequencies." The ionization of the air in the main room was quite intense, with plasma freely forming coronas. Once the pandemic is over, you can drive out to get a 'sound bath' in the room, if you are so inclined. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integratron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integratron
- R0b0t1 6y agoYou don't need to raise the person's potential for this to work, though it could make it more effective. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatic_precipitator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatic_precipitator Places like hospitals filter the air internally to reduce infection.