After reading yet another study on mobile phone radiation (this one showing it did not cause cancer), I began to think about it more closely. Most people would hear radiation and think of the same stuff that comes from fission reactors, but being a NS reader (and science student) I know it is just electromagnetic radiation in the microwave region.

Considering this is the next level up from radio waves, which I think we may safely assume are not harmful, how much more energetic are microwaves than radio waves? And since microwaves are less energetic than visible light, how could they possibly harm us?

It would be a comfort to have to hand a statement, in the form of a mathematical equation if you're scientifically minded, which applies everywhere. This would make better sense to us than a universe in which apparently different laws apply depending on where you're looking and it holds the promise that it would tell us something fundamental about how the Universe is made.

This is just daydreaming isn't it? Surely the truth is void since No idea applies everywhere and what really unifies us is Nothing.

Surely this is also the answer to the question "Why is there something and not nothing?", since our idea of "nothingness" is in fact a clearly defined thing with tightly drawn attributes and the Universe isn't, the Universe IS that Nothing. We're made if it: No definite thing.

Surely the same truth applies to laws of scale, for example, the thought of laws which unify quantum mechanics and electromagnetism with celestial gravity: Just looking with the naked eye, the objects on my desk are separate pieces, surely then it follows that we should expect the theories of reality to follow suit?

If I have a string of outdoor (parallel connected) lights and a high-speed camera, I believe that they would light up in sequence at about a nanosecond per foot, with some reflection effect from the open end of the string, ignoring any thermal lag in filaments. But do I measure distance from the switch, or the transformer up the street ?

How about an open loop of indoor (series connected) lights ? Do I have to wait for the energy wave to complete a circuit, or do the lamps come on in sequence both ways around the loop starting at the switch ?

(perhaps I should add, from the point of view of an observer equidistant from all the components)

Specifically would an object with said increased electromagnetic bonds etc. exhibit appearances of being colder than they actually were due to the increased energy required to excite them?

I contend that the fastest human powered object would be the smallest thing that could be engineered by humans  fired by a linear accelerator powered by chris hoy on a bike but how fast could that theoretically go? And what could be faster?

After microwaving a plate of food for two minutes, when I removed the plate, I noticed a living, normal and healthy ant on the bottom of the plate.  Assuming I did not pick up the ant post microwaving -- something I am almost certain I did not -- how is it possible for an ant to survive being microwaved for two minutes?  Chiton exoskeleton?  Weird surface area effect?  Ants are from space a la Fred Hoyle? ;)

Any help is appreciated.

When I charged a flash camera beside a radio set to AM, I noticed a series of sounds produced, similar to that of the harmonics of a sliding square waveform with frequencies above 16000 Hz. How do they interfere and what part of the camera generates radio waves?

We took the single span cable car from Lake Skalnaté, at 1751m above sea level, to Lomnický štít which, at 2634m above seal level, is the second highest peak in the Tatra mountains.

The peak was covered in cloud with little wind. The air was highly charged with static, I could feel what hair I have standing up and my wife got shocks from the metal handrails that surround the narrow ridge.

Suddenly I felt a slight but definite slap on my head. I was taken by surprise and was wondering if I had been hit by a bird when, perhaps two seconds later, there was a crack of thunder. I had seen no flash when I felt the slap, but had been looking down at the time.

My wife did not notice the effect but felt it prior to a second thunder clap, I did not feel the effect the second time, the lightning was again unseen.

The sensation definitely felt like a physical contact and I firmly link it to the lightning.

What was it we experienced and how could it precede the sound?

I avoided holding the handrails, which were earthed, after hearing the thunder. Was I correct in assuming this would be safer than holding them?

Would the steel cable  to the ground over 883m below not have been very attractive to lightening and how would this have been protected against at the winding gear?

Regards

Hal