On Mon, 4 Jul 2005 12:34:25 -0700, "Mike Fields"
wrote:


"Eric R Snow" wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 04 Jul 2005 05:57:27 GMT, "carl mciver"
wrote:

"Eric R Snow" wrote in message
.. .
| I was using a chisel to remove, by scraping, foam tape from aluminum
| frames. I was listening to the radio through headphones while doing
| this. An FM station if that matters. Anyway, sometimes I could hear
| the tape separating from the aluminum. I thought the tape must be
| making a lot of sound if I could hear it through the headphones.
| Removing them only made the process silent. Putting them back on I
| could hear the hiss again. I think that there must be a charge being
| released when the glue is scraped away from the substrate.
| ERS

Very cool story! Methinks it's static, with high enough voltage and
current to create a magnetic field that your radio could pick up. I
wonder
that if you tried it with any other radio whether it would still work. I
think not, given the exact circumstances required to make it happen.
There's some fancy terms for it, but they elude me at the moment.
Now I'm wondering if it was the wire to the headphones that was
picking up the sound. Then it wouldn't matter what frequency the radio
was tuned to.
ERS

Foam tends to create static electricity - the sparks get picked up by
an am radio (in general an FM radio will not pick it up for several
reasons). Take a piece of foam in the dark, let your eyes adjust then
rip it and watch the sparks. I used to see the same thing with the
tape on the end of 35mm film when I pulled it off in the darkroom
before loading the film in the tank for processing. Some foams are
really bad for static.

mikey

So since I was listening to FM what gives? Was it the earphones?
ERS