can electricity be transmitted from one point to another wirelessly, like radio waves?

Answer 1

Yes, actually AS radio waves. But it is an inefficient process, as propagation must be focused to overcome the "power decreases by the square of distance" problem. Not to be confused with lightning, which is a natural, actual "spark" of electricity.

Nikola Tesla was obsessed with this idea of large-scale electrical transmission through the media of air and vacuum. Nikola Tesla is the inventor of radio. He built some massive machinery trying to transmit and receive electricity efficiently, but results weren't impressive.

Newer technology raises the efficiency of wireless transmission of electrical energy. Namely, focused microwave transmission from space to earth surface receivers are theoretically possible and described in scientific literature.

Power from the sun is converted to electricity, the electricity converted to microwave-frequency radio waves (or - with better technology - to laser beams) and focused toward a ground receiver. The ground receiver reverses the process.

A variation on the above puts a sunlight-focusing reflector into space, which reflects focused sunlight on a ground receiver for electrical generation from heat (this is simply giving an existing solar reflective power station a supplemental nighttime sun source).

Answer 2

Beamed power has been experimented with for years. We now do it all the time, at a very low level. Satellites and cell phones convert electric signals into microwaves which are broadcast, picked up by receivers, and reconverted to electric signals.

This process becomes very inefficient and dangerous for large amounts of power.

First, any transformation of energy from one form to another results in a loss of energy in the process. Energy is also lost to attenuation (or absorption) as the energy passes through a medium. This is the least of the problems as the same thing happens in every energy generation and transmission process.

Second, broadcasting any significant amount of power would require a large increase in the strength of the microwave signals, which would pose a health hazard. It would be like living inside a microwave oven. There are already health warnings about using cell phones and you definitely don't want to stand inside a large, solid satellite dish for any extended period.

Thirdly, one way around this would be to concentrate the microwaves into a tight (but not lased) beam. There are two problems with this approach --

1) the microwave beam can't be seen. A beam of several hundred watts is sufficient to cook food -- imagine what would happen to a bird or a plane flying through a multi-megawatt beam.

2) a high power microwave beam would act upon the gas molecules of the atmosphere as it passes through, transferring energy to those molecules (attenuation, sic). The molecules would become ionized and heated. This would create both lightning and heated high pressure zones along the line of travel.

I like my electricity contained inside a nice, thick insulator, thank you.

On the other hand, there has been some successful experimentation with the quantum displacement of electrons. That is, moving an electron from point A to point B without having it pass through the intervening space. So far, the experiments have involved a single electron and distances of an electron diameter, about 0.00000000000000025 inches. But, theoretically at least, what can be done to one electron can be done to billions and the distance involved is a matter of degree.

Expect quantum communications -- the displacement of modulated, low level electronic signals from tramsmitter to receiver -- first. In maybe 50 or 75 years. Whether it will be feasible to displace large amounts of electrons for transmitted power is another matter.

Answer 3

You've sort of answered your own question. Radio waves are an example.

The problem is that you can't do it efficiently, at least not using known techniques.

Basically, any wire with AC electricity passing through it acts like a transformer. It builds a magnetic field around it. Another wire within the field can detect that field because a current is induced in the second wire. Thus, you have effectively transferred some of the electricity from one wire to the other wire.

But for what you're trying to do, it would be very inefficient.

Maybe someday, someone will come up with a pair of antennas that would let you do a much more efficient job of this.

Answer 4

Yes and No. In the ordinary sense, electricity is always transmitted through a good conductor like a metal wire. Electricity normally will not pass through air or vacuum.

however, at very high potential difference, as between the pole pieces in and induction coil, or in a vacuum tube, electrons can fly off, you may say electricity is then transmitted 'wirelessly'.

Answer 5

Yes it can be trasferred wirelessly however there are some potential problems

1. Its Path will not be defined as in case of radio waves
2. if its path is not defined, it will try to find the nearest point to earth itself(which is not the case with radio waves) then in that case it can hit humans & life forms .. & it wont be used efficiently
3. Only high voltages can be transferred so it would be a big financial obligation & fatal risk...

Answer 6

Electricity can be transferred wirelessly. The simple example to elucidate will be when there is lightening in the sky then many a times we have seen that the electricity transfers from sky to earth without any wire. But it may be a risky too.

Answer 7

that's one hundred% achievable to deliver means via Electromagnetic waves and that's being achieved, in spite of if that's greater difficulty than that's well worth for customer desires for numerous motives. in the beginning, the frequency might want to be someplace around 60-one hundred GHz. Secondly, the quantity of means mandatory on the transmitter may well be astronomical to make certain that the wave to no longer attenuate to 0 after some meters. 0.33, this volume of means might reason unfavorable outcomes on the human physique, ought to somebody impede the beam. those, as i discussed, are no longer feasable for substantial different and young ones purposes, yet there are numerous purposes being researched. the final is the powering of zeppelins from the floor. In Japan there is an array of fifty+ satellite tv for pc dishes that beam sixty 5 GHz means beams as much as a zeppelin interior the middle troposphere.

Answer 8

Yes it can be....but it's VERY Inefficient.....The best way to transmit electric energy is with wire and transformers. Nikola Tesla the inventor of AC transmission has some great info on him. Check this website below......
Or Google Nikola Tesla for additional sites.....

http://www.electricity4free.com/tesla.html

Answer 9

Yes it can be transmitted. If u can apply a huge potential between two points air also acts as a conductor and u can see the sparks fly!
Count Dracula

Answer 10

I don't think it's possible. You will have to transform the electricity in radio waves or something similar and then transform it back to electricity. But that or is impossible, or is going to use more electricity so it would be useless.