Could the fractal antenna technology that is used in cell phones be engineered to capture naturally-occurring electromagnetic waves and convert them into usable power? An engineering breakthrough would be needed, along with a multi-discipline cooperative approach.
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 A fractal taken from Walnut Creek's CD-ROM Fractal Frenzy, "Visions of Chaos: Volume 1," by Lee H. Skinner. (Source) |
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Yesterday, Jack Passerello sent me the following essay. I followed up with an interview which you can download.
I watched a TV program on Mendelbrot sets and how fractal antennas were each able to pick up many radio signals (frequencies) at the same time.
It came to me that almost ALL radiating waves could be picked up by a set of fractal antennas. I refer you to the fractal antenna in your cell phone.
Each fractal antenna in the set will pick up a string of adjacent frequencies -- without tuning or adjusting an antenna or receiver.
Every star, every galaxy, every radiation source may give off radio waves. This would include interstellar (cosmic rays), radio, magnetic, and even gravitational waves. Plus there is radiation from electrons, neutrons, protons, deuterons, X rays, photons, alpha and beta particles, mesons, hypertons, all secondary radiation, PLUS the mysterious and unfound dark energy and/or dark matter.
In other words, the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
Dozens, maybe hundreds, maybe thousands, of specifically tuned antennas can be stacked in an assembly that may be as small as a cigar box and yet have the potential of capturing thousands of watts of power.
The fractal antenna designer (and manufacturer) on that TV program, stated that a cell phone receives an individual signal for that phone that is very small.
In fact, he said that the signal received is .0003 % of 1 milliwatt per signal received. That is ------ .0000003 watt ----- or .3 watt per million signals.
Or -------- 3 watt per 10 million signals received.
Or -------- 30 watt in 100 million signals received.
Or --------- 300 watt in a billion signals received.
Cosmic rays alone have energies 500 times more than the most energetic particle given off by radioactive materials. This is 30 times the energy produced in the fission of uranium. So with BILLIONS of electromagnetic signals being produced by every man made satellite, every radio and T.V. station and TRILLIONS of stars and heavenly bodies all firing off trillions upon trillions of electromagnetic signals, each able to be individually picked up by our fractal antenna assembly, you see what potential there is for capturing and using a great new source of power.
But the problem is that all these signals are INCOHERENT, that is, all separated by their individual wavelength and wave peak. It is therefore necessary to convert this incoherence jumble into a COHERENT and usable energy source.
And just as a LASER uses a spectrum of incoherent LIGHT to produce a COHERENT beam of light (a laser beam) a new engineering breakthrough is needed to use the BILLIONS of minute and different electromagnetic waves that are captured by the fractal antennas and convert them into usable coherent wattage (power).
But unlike the conversion of light in a laser (photon emission caused by a drop to a lower energy level by an electron), it may be a matter of realignment of wavelengths or compressing or protracting wavelengths of signals in a circuit or even in guide tubes such as those used in radar receivers.
In addition to the fractal antennas CAPTURING the myriad signals, a fractal antenna configuration (Mendelbrot set) built internally inside a wave guide tube may also realign/compress/merge the differentiated and incoherent signals and make them coherent and their energy usable.
I am told that lasers actually self align some of their waves while they travel back and forth between the end mirrors. This, I do not understand. But possibly all other waves of energy have some of this ability, and if so can be a factor in our quest.
The knowledge of several scientific disciplines is required to fully appreciate the potential and practicality of this hypothesis. They are:
- Electrical engineering
- Laser engineering
- Electronic engineering
- Cosmology
- Radio and Television transmission and reception, (including radar)
- Antenna design (especially fractal antennas)
- Computer science
- Mathematics
- Physics
I'm unsure of the potential of this idea. It may be very important and possible with the development of the new fractal antennas. I would appreciate it if you would advise me as to your interest and the practicality of further investigation into this area.
I would welcome a face to face discussion on this subject.
# # #
John (Jack) Passerello is an electrical engineer who spent his career primarily working with induction motors, working for Macdonnel Douglass as a technical illustrator and for Hughes Aircraft in Fullerton, CA, for 20 years, eventually as a senior computer designer. He was also involved there in coming up with the first computer chip. At 74 years old, he and his wife run a plant nursery.
He may be reached at:
2474 W. Orange Ave.
Anaheim, CA 92804
phone: 714-828-1024 (Pacific time zone; night owl)
email: <arlinejackp {at} aol.com>
Postlogue
After my interview with Jack, he phoned to thank me, and mentioned that it is very likely that one could get a DOE grant to pursue the concepts presented here. The task of taking this project forward could likely become a prestigious, full-time career for the right person. -- Sterling D. Allan
See also
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Comments
"I am told that lasers actually self align some of their waves while they travel back and forth between the end mirrors. This, I do not understand."
OMG! Jack doesn't even understand the fundamental principal behind the LASER. That gives me serious doubts that he understands anything about EM waves in general.
Dear SAM:
I describe the laser in my paper.
It is the possible phenomena of the self aligning of the laser light that is not understood by anyone.
As new photons propogate in a laser they should radiate with total RANDOMNESS, but as I wrote, it is believed that they seem to SELF ALIGN beyond the normal expectations of the construction of the mirrored ended crystal.
You may know if this apparent discrepancy is a real effect, just a misjudgment of observation or a true error and unprovable.
Either way can you elaborate on this seemingly unnatural self aligning effect ?
JACK
Okay, quick lesson on how LASERs work.
(Part 1)
Let's look at the classical ruby-rod laser. The ruby-rod is coated with 100% mirror at one end and 50% mirror at the other. A flash of light, typically from something like a Xenon flash bulb, pumps energy into the ruby. These photons pass into the ruby's crystal lattice, and many of them end up striking the atoms, knocking an electron into a higher, semi-stable energy state. Eventually these electrons naturally decay and release their extra energy in the form of a photon at a specific wavelength. The photons that are spontaneously released in this way travel in random directions, but a few just happen to end up traveling the length of the ruby-rod, and bounce off the mirror. Now, as those specific photons travel back along the length of the rod, they will eventually bump into other atoms that still have electrons with higher-energy states. Here's where the "magic" happens...
(Part 2)
When a photon (that's already at the ruby's atoms' specific wavelength) bumps into another excited atom, it will cause that atom's excited electron to give up its extra energy and also emit a photon of the same wavelength. This happens nearly instantly, so now we have two photons of the same wavelength, and they are also coherent, meaning they are in phase with each other, and they are also now traveling in the same direction.
Now as these two coherent, synchronized photons travel along and bounce between the mirrors, they continue to bump into other excited atoms, causing yet more photons of the same wavelength and phase to be released in the same direction. Eventually you get a rather large "wave" of photons, all of the same wavelength and phase, bouncing back and forth. Obviously the one end of the rod that has only a 50% mirror will "leak" some of these photons out, thus causing the laser "beam" to emerge and be seen.
(Part 3)
I believe the part that you (Jack) may not fully understand is how one photon can cause an electron to emit another photon with exactly the same wavelength, phase, and direction as the first. This is where the atom's electron "orbits" come into play. First, we have a ruby-rod, so nearly all of the atoms are identical to each other. It also means that as these atoms absorb the initial light photons (from the pulsed external light source), they all do so identically. That means they all absorb the same amount of energy, which goes into "knocking" an electron into a higher "orbit". When one of these electrons spontaneously drops back into its lower "orbit", it releases energy in the form of a photon always at a specific wavelength. This release photon can now "bump" into another electron that's also in a higher "orbit", causing it to also release a photon. But in this case, the photon is released in the same direction as the first photon.
(Part 4)
Since the release of a second photon is cause by the first photon, their phases are in sync with each other, thus causing them to be coherent.
In summary, there's really nothing magical about LASERs and their photons "self-aligning". They do so because of the nature of photons and electrons. It's all pretty common physics.
So, please pardon my surprise when I read that you didn't understand how a LASER works. For an electrical engineer proposing an idea such as a "fractal" antenna (an intriguing idea), I would assumed that you would already knew exactly how LASERs work.
Now, applying the physics of a LASER (emissions of photons) in order to design a new antenna (capturing EM waves) is the part that I'm not so sure about. (Unless, of course, you're talking about a "fractal" antenna for capturing random light photons - for which you have my undivided attention!)
SAM
I told how a laser works in my letter so that you would Know that there is no corrolation between laser light propogation and the capturing of radiated energy by a fractal antenna.
You assume that it is a KNOWN FACT that photons travel in the same direction upon propogation, but I think you are mistaken in this assumption.
Photons have NO DIRECTION when propogated because they act not only as a small packet of energy but also as a WAVE which propogates in all directions ( The equal universal direction may be slighyly altered by some effect that I, and you do not understand.)
If you think a photon is ONE SIMPLE PACKET OF ENERGY A QUANTA) and can only travel on one infinitesimal path then you are correct in assuming your theory of self alignment, but then again you would be the only man in the world that knows all about light and that light DOES NOT travel in WAVES but only in your little PACKETS that can be pushed around like little grains of sand on a beach.MORE LATER.
I think the show is NOVA's "Hunting the Hidden Dimension"
Hello. I like this thing with fractals, like the trees in the woods, each tree have branches, uniform or not uniformed. and those branches branch out in several branches and so on.. till it becomes small enough of carrying the leaves at those small branches, and then there are nerve branches in every freakin leafe! So yes our whole microcosm and macrocosm is all made out of symbiotic and synergetic fractals with the natural fibbonacci code.
I have an idea, not a theory or anything proper. BUT! You know how an electric generator/alternator works. you know there is friction with these things between the rotor and the stator and the mainframe of the alternator!?
if this friction is taken away bye seperating the stator from the rotor and the mainframe, things can only get better (i guess). So if, in this case, the stator is a wide (2 meters in diameter or bigger) half moon ring (the flat part of the half moon / the diameter of the sphere is turned upwards) made out of copperwire in fractal design (to absorb as much as possible of the magnets (rotors) "energy"). And we have the magnet (the rotor) but in this case it wont rotate, but it will swing, by connecting the magnet ball with a rope to the input electrical engine which swings it / rotates it, in a circular horizontal motion, with the help of gravity + timed input speed of the el-engine. Any possibility for this less -input more out-put generator? please help evolve this if possible..
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