• Julian@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Your car keys have better range if you press them to your head, since your skull will act as an antenna. It sounds like some made up pseudoscience that would never work in practice or have a negligible effect, but it actually works.

    Edit: idk if it’s actually because your skull acts as an antenna, although that’s what I’ve heard. I looked it up and it seems like it’s your head acting as a reasonance chamber. Since your body is conductive, your head can bounce and amplify the radio signal.

    • undercrust@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It works best if you hold the fob under your chin and open your mouth in the direction you’re aiming!

    • Zebov@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      On one side you have people that think 5g causes cancer. On the other, you have people directly beaming shit into their skulls to open their cars from a couple extra feet away.

      Wild

      • Julian@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        To be fair, radio waves have been everywhere for over a hundred years now. Plus, it’s just low-frequency light. It’s no different (probably safer even) than shining a flashlight at your head.

        • sunbeam60@lemmy.one
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          1 year ago

          Supposing we could somehow bring the light into the body?! Or maybe we could inject them with disinfectant! We better look into that.

      • darcy@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        i dont believe it causes cancer necessarily, but i think 5g is worrying for the sake of big increase in location tracking precision

      • buycurious@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’ve read two takes on this before:

        1. The cavity of your head helps project the signal to your car

        2. The water molecules in your head amplify the radio waves to reach your car

        • Barbacamanitu@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I can’t imagine how water could amplify a signal. If anything, it’s the reflector like shape of your skull.

    • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      The first time I heard about this was in reference to garage door remotes.

      If your remote was too far away, you placed the remote under your chin pointing to your skull to amplify the signal using your head.

    • Cybermass@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      There is absolutely no way this is true. I need to see some evidence to believe this. (I work as a wireless technician)

      • Steve@compuverse.uk
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        1 year ago

        I’ve done it. It does work.

        Hold your fob a foot to the side of your head. Back away until it stops working. Take 2 more steps back to be sure. Then put the fob to your forehead. It’ll work again.

      • hardypart@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        It’s true, but not because your skull acts like an antenna. It’s because the signal is being reflected by the skull. You can actually just try it out, the range of your car keys will extend when you hold them to your chin.

        • Cybermass@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I doubt enough signal reflect of off your very radio wave observing skull to make much of a difference at all, it’s most likely a placebo effect and the real reason it extends the range is because you are holding the key fob higher, so it has a better LOS with less obstructions, and it has a better chance to bounce waves off of the very reflective concrete on the ground up to the sensor of your car.

          Organic materials are absolute crap at reflecting wireless signals, they are much better at absorbing and scattering them.