6 ms·
No, I think they actually are working as a detector, just a mechanical one! The movement of the grass (relative to the surface of the tower) is not sinusoidal,
by bjt2n3904 5y ago
No, I think they actually are working as a detector, just a mechanical one!
The movement of the grass (relative to the surface of the tower) is not sinusoidal, it's clipped just like a diode rectifier -- and the grass' springiness acts like a mechanical capacitor, smoothing the motion out.
- marcodiego 5y agoInteresting theory, but I'm still unconvinced. AFAIK, the electric potential of the tower is a product of the signal that is being sent multiplied by the carrier wave. When the potential on the tower is high, it will burn the weed stronger; when the potential of the tower is close to 0, the rate of burn of the weed will not change. The burning weed will reproduce the potential of the tower: signal times carrier. Since the carrier is too high a frequency for our ears or the weed too, we only listen signal that is inside human hearing interval.
- bjt2n3904 5y agoI think not only is the carrier too high for our ears to hear, but also too high for the grass to vibrate at. (500-800 kHz is pretty fast, Hence, the mechanical damping!) I think I'm pretty close, but I need Smarter Every Day on this one!