Believe it or not: Ghost hunters go high tech

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Agreed: Agreed - often people don't realize that electric and magnetic fields are all over the place and that even stuff that isn't powered can have an effect.

I'm guessing that these attempts to find magnetic and electrical anomalies are simply finding things like Faraday cages, or electrical fields between wires. If more than one wire is in the area, there could be constructive or destructive interference that could amplify the interference.

And it doesn't even have to be wires: If there's metal in the ground, it can affect compasses. Especially if the metal has some natural magnetism.

I'm willing to bet all of the "ghosts" detected by compasses or EMF sensing equipment have a much more earthy and mundane explanation nearby.

One thing that may throw people off is that a compass doesn't actually point towards the source of the magnetism: It merely points along the lines of the magnetic field. Simply "following the compass" won't necessarily lead you to the source of the magnetism. If you have a wire going vertically with a current through it, you'll actually be led in a circle around the wire. And if you have AC current, it's reversing direction all the time, so it may cause a compass to go crazy . A Faraday cage would also cause a compass to stop working, as magnetic fields can't penetrate the cage.

I think a lot of people just don't realize how electricity and magnetism are related, or how all of it interacts.; Posted by: CobraA1 Posted on: 07/21/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use