Whats the deal with tesla theorizing we can transmit electricity through the air? Are we too dumb to figure it out or is it an exaggeration? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 18 hours ago by Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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[-] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 4 points 13 hours ago

Yeah, kind of a hazard, especially in a time when a lot of structures like bridges were made of iron.

Also you have the inverse square law issue - the energy imparted by the induction field drops off exponentially with distance, so the farther away you want to transmit power the higher the output transmission has to be, and it starts to get really impractical because the field strength varies significantly with distance from the transmitter. A device at the edge of the induction field will recieve a much lower amount of energy than a device in the middle. Assuming that you want to be able to run something useful (say, a refrigerator) at the edge of the field, well now you have to do something to shield similar devices that are closer to the transmission point or they'll melt - maybe you ground them so they can dump excess energy, but now you're wired again anyway, so what was the point of wireless power?

this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2025

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