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   clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Sunday, 22-Jun-2025 22:17:59 JST clacke
   Can super-low-frequency radiation, like that from powerlines, give rise to (weak) ionizing "overtones"?
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     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Tuesday, 24-Jun-2025 21:06:24 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Graydon

     @graydon I can imagine e.g. a scenario where a surface would reflect a wave, and also reflect the wave a quarter a cycle out of phase.

     Hmm, but the superposition of those two waves wouldn't have a component of a shorter wavelength, it would just be the same wavelength, with a phase between the phases of the superposed waves.

     I just want to make sure I'm not missing something by thinking too particle-centric. Waves do strange things.

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     Graydon (graydon@canada.masto.host)'s status on Tuesday, 24-Jun-2025 21:06:26 JST Graydon

     in reply to

     @clacke Frequency = wavelength = energy; low frequency stuff is inherently low energy, and ionizing is functionally "enough energy to rip the electrons off".

     If there were enough leakage to rip the electrons off, you could see it at night as charges balanced. (Plus it would be a source of transmission loss and lots of effort would go into preventing it.)