When you place a sausage on the high-voltage antenna of an AM radio, it crackles and burns, and a sound rings out.
There are many different types of radio antennas, some of which carry extremely high voltage currents within reach of a human. In 2024, technology YouTuber Jeff Gearing released a video of himself throwing a sausage at an AM radio antenna managed by his father, and he has since collaborated with slow-motion YouTubers The Slow Mo Guys on this video.
Gearing prepares an experimental device with an electric wire attached to the end of a long pole.
Attach the sausage to the tip of the tool.
He brought the experimental equipment to the AM radio antenna managed by Gearing's father and connected the wire attached to the equipment to the ground at the base of the antenna.
When you press the sausage against the antenna, sparks will come out of the tip of the sausage and the radio will ring out.
The contact part of the sausage after the experiment looks like this.
The Slow Mo Guys, who were interested in the above experiment, released a video in November 2022 below. The Slow Mo Guys attempted to record in detail the phenomenon occurring at the contact point between the sausage and the antenna using their super slow camera, which they specialize in.
What's interesting is that the size of the sparks changes according to the volume of the radio sound.
Below is a picture of the contact surface recorded at 82,000 frames per second. It turns out that the sausage is not burning, but rather multiple small lightning bolts are formed between the sausage and the antenna.
The shape of the lightning bolt is clearly visible in footage recorded at 200,000 frames per second.
When I removed the sausage and brought the lead closer, I was able to see a beautiful arch-shaped discharge.
In addition, Gearing is also conducting an experiment to 'restore radio audio based on the strength of sparks reflected in slow-motion video'.
Recording radio with the light of a burning hot dog - YouTube
The video below also provides a detailed explanation of the transmitting antenna equipment.
If I touch this tower, I die - YouTube
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in Video, Posted by log1o_hf