/sci/ - Science & Math

You're not this retarded in real life, are you?

It has gone beyond the theoretical stage. The fact that wireless exists proves it. We don't have "wireless power cables" because it would interfere with the electrical components inside and outside of whatever you're powering.

If you're asking about computers specifically:http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.jsp?url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fstam
p%2Fstamp.jsp%3Ftp%3D%26arnumber%3D5595028%26isnumber%3D4358093&authDecision=-203

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductive_charging
There are commercial products for "wireless power" (eg http://www.powermat.com/)) however for household/industrial consumption it's far too inefficient to be practical, and there are issues which will never be overcome without a huge changes in various established infrastructures.

http://www.witricity.com/
http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_giler_demos_wireless_electricity.html

It's not possible for wireless to ever be as reliable as a physical connection. It's also easier to eavesdrop on. As for power, it's far too inefficient.

Furthermore even radio frequency transmissions become dangerous at sufficiently high energy levels. That means transmission of electrical power Tesla-style is out of the question, because while most of the radio waves would pass through people without interacting, enough of them do interact to cause thermal damage to living tissue if you attempt to beam a lot of wattage through the air.

>>3071877
>He thinks running billions of pounds of fragile power lines all over the place is efficient

>>3071880
>Implying it's less inefficient than wireless

>>3071880

Compared to wireless? Yeah, in a big way.

You'd be crazy not to invest in that infrastructure bring transmission losses as low as possible.

>>3071880

>building a powerline costs chump change
>the best efficiency for wireless power transmission with short distances is 83%

It'd cost less just to build power lines than try to improve the efficiency of wireless transmission.

>>3071892

And by short distances I mean lengths under 1 meter.

>>3071892

>he's never heard of signal repeaters!

>>3071900
>signal repeaters
>for power transmission

>>3071900

And how would you power the wireless repeaters? I swear, /sci/ is becoming /b3/.

>>3071886
>make power lines everywhere
>run out of copper to use in circuitry
>have power but nothing to use it with

>>3071877
On a SMALL scale it's certainly possible to make wireless systems just as efficient as wired systems. Enclose your system in a material with high permeability and low electrical conductivity (e.g. ferrite), pump out the gas and make it ultra high vacuum so there are no losses via various mechanisms through the gas and you can transmit power from a to b in that system quite efficiently in that small space...

Whether that design has any uses is an entirely different matter...

>>3071908

>run out of copper
>copper is one of the more abundant metals found in the Earth's upper crust

Yeah. Okay.

>>3071908
>run out of copper before anything else

>>3071908
>He doesn't know about aluminium

I don't know. I think you could build a wireless computer. It'd be pretty awesome to swap a drive or other component by setting the new one down on the desk next to the graphics card, which is next to the motherboard, which is 12 inches away from the power supply, and there are no wires connecting them at all.

>>3071877
>>3071885
>>3071886
>>3071892

>complain about an efficiency greater than 80%
>implying there's actually a shortage of electricity production capability

This thread is about to become a thorium thread, I can feel it.

>>3071916

Why don't we use thorium as an energy source in nuclear reactors rather than U and Pu? Thorium is in greater quantity in the Earth, costs less, and produces more energy on a mol per mol basis.

>>3071916
>complain about an efficiency greater than 80%

That's best case at like one foot, but nice try with the intentional misread. You try to transmit power a mile and that efficiency drops to the single digits.

>>3071916

Thorium's half life is the approximate age of the universe. Then how was Thorium made in the first place?

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2009/04/26051202.jpg

>>3071911
>>3071912

Say what you will but shit's pretty bad when niggers are stealing copper wires and leaving the electronics.

>>3071925
A humans half life is about 37 years, my gran is 96. How was she born!

>>3071929
There's heaps of copper... It's just that there's not enough to meet demand and probably not going to be anymore if consumption grows at its current rate...

>>3071930

I'm pretty sure she came out of a vagina.

>>3071929
>>3071934

Most of the cost of copper is in extracting and processing it, rather than any sort of rarity. This is a cost that would fall through the floor if energy were cheaper.

Titanium is another very useful metal whose cost is largely determined by energy.