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not "energy", but "light" or "EM"

On Wed, 8 May 2002, Larry Smith wrote:

What am I paying my utility company for? What do they give me in exchange
for my money? I'm not buying electrons (which are real?). Am I buying
energy (which is not real?)? If energy is a property of objects can I buy
the property without buying the object? Is this like a diaper service
where I'm buying not diapers but cleanliness?

Instead suppose that the utility companies were sending you kilojoules
worth of light via fiber optic cables. Is light NOTHING? Since light is
not a substance, must we forbid ourselves from discussing it?

Suppose that the utility companies were instead sending you kilojoules
worth of 50GHz microwaves via little bitty waveguides. Microwaves are
NOTHING? They're not a substance, so we must forbid ourselves from
discussing them?

The same argument applies to 100MHz radio waves transmitted to you via
coax cable.

The same argument applies to 60Hz radio waves, or even DC.

See my point? Regardlesss of frequency, SOMETHING is moving from the
distant generator to your home, be it light or DC or everything in
between.

If we are forbidden from discussing the flow of 60Hz electromagnetic
energy, then consistency requires that we also stop talking about "light"
as if it could move around.

I think the opposite is the better course: say that "light" comes out of
your laser pointer and shoots across the room. ALso say that "60Hz EM
waves" come out of a generator and fly along the power lines. The physics
is the same, only the frequency is different.

(Note: people start arguing about the difference between coax and hollow
waveguides. There essentially is no difference, since both act as ducts
for the flow of EM "stuff." Both rely on electron vibrations to guide the
waves. In both there is an electric current in a metal. The only
difference is that very long waves can fit through a thin coax cable.
In both the coax and the hollow waveguides, if you stick a resistor at
the end, the resistor gets hot.)


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