Additional Info

• ID Code: K8-46
• Purpose: Demonstrates that radio waves do not penetrate a Faraday cage
• Description: Tune the radio to an inoffensive station audible in the classroom. Then place the radio on a metal surface; the radio continues to play. Show students the cage and ask what will happen if you lower the cage over the radio. Note that they can still see through the cage, so light is passing through.

  Lower the cage over the radio. Once the cage surrounds the radio completely, it prevents RF waves from passing through, silencing the radio. This also shows the wavelength dependence of a Faraday cage; the much shorter wavelengths of the electromagnetic waves of visible light pass through the openings unhindered.

• Availability: Available
• References: REFERENCES: (PIRA 5B20.35)
• Loc codes: K8
• Videos-1: Animation of demonstration
• Videos-2: Video of demonstration