18 Aug
2004
18 Aug
'04
4:06 p.m.
I am told, for example, that it can be much more
dangerous to swallow
an alpha particle source than a gamma ray source because the alphas
are absorbed by bits of your body and do naaty things, although
sitting on the bench, the alpha source is the safer, since the
radiation is trivial to screen out.
Trivial, as in a few feet of air is often enough. :-) The
normally-sane magazine 'Elektor' had a project [...] Yes, it was
claimed to reduce radiation from the wall-wart.
Which it will.
Whether eliminating that radiation (which, I daresay, falls into two
main classes - 50 or 60 Hz electromagnetic, and black-body thermal,
which latter I think we can ignore) is worth doing is another question
entirely. Given how much mains-frequency radiation is flying around, I
Actually, reducing the thermal radiation was mentioned as another
benefit, in that it claims said circuit 'saved energy' as well.
have trouble taking seriously the idea that
eliminating the tiny
fraction a wall-wart throws is going to make any difference - and
that's even if any of it has any effect, which I don't consider
anything like proven, much less that it has any _undesirable_ effect.
Agreed....
I would like to know if there's any statistically significant correlation
between health problems and being a radio amateur. The point being that
health problems from people who work with electrical/electronic devices
could be due to stress or various other causes, but presumably amateurs,
who do it for fun, wouldn't suffer from stress when they're messing about
with electronics.
Somebody really needs to give the public a decent
scientific
education....
Ah, but the problem there is, that requires a public able and willing
to accept a decent scientific education. It's extraordinarily
difficult to teach people who aren't the least bit interested in
learning what you're trying to teach.