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I was wondering how can a signal actually go through solid object? For example, if I cover my TV remote with a blanket and I press on, then the TV will turn on even the remote is covered! How is that so when it comes down to is properties and its structure? Talking in terms of if I was a signal, but I can't go through the wall because I would get blocked!
It's either an infrared or radio-wave type signal.
Even more fun is bouncing the signal off a wall, perhaps the one OPPOSITE the TV--so it's not pointed in tbe direction of the TV, and watching it turn on.
Most remotes use infrared light to transmit the command to the receiving device (TV). As someone else mentioned, the blanket isn't actually solid, so the light is able to pass through it. The signal can bounce off a wall like any other light - you just can't see it.
I was wondering how can a signal actually go through solid object? For example, if I cover my TV remote with a blanket and I press on, then the TV will turn on even the remote is covered! How is that so when it comes down to is properties and its structure? Talking in terms of if I was a signal, but I can't go through the wall because I would get blocked!
It's not really the holes that let the light through, it's the blanket being relatively thin that will let the light through. If you shine a bright enough flashlight through your blanket, someone would be able to see it as well. Think of a TV remote as a flashlight in a kind of light (infrared) that you can't see, but the TV can. In order to block light, an obstruction has to be able to absorb all of the light. This depends both on the how absorptive the material is to the wavelength and how thick the material is. If you wrapped the remote in a thin sheet of aluminum foil it would no longer work because aluminum foil is very bad at transmitting IR whereas you could pass the signal through feet of glass. IR is generally less well absorbed so even things that are opaque to visible light can be transparent to IR.
It's the same principle that allows you to listen to radio inside your house even without an outside antenna. Radio waves, which are really just another kind of light, aren't really absorbed by the materials in your wall so they pass right through. If you could "see" in radio frequencies your walls would look clear.
I like your question! We can move from physics to quantum physics and quantum mechanics -- there are no "solid" objects. Nothing in our universe is actually impenetrable because everything in our universe is energy, existing at various different frequency vibrations.
So, for example, neutrinos are always moving through chairs, vegetables, walls, cows and so forth... If matter were "solid", that is impenetrable, no trees or humans would ever get electrocuted from lightning or toasters.
Check out the quantum sciences. They're great fun!`
I was wondering how can a signal actually go through solid object? For example, if I cover my TV remote with a blanket and I press on, then the TV will turn on even the remote is covered! How is that so when it comes down to is properties and its structure? Talking in terms of if I was a signal, but I can't go through the wall because I would get blocked!
That's because nothing is really solid. Everything is a bunch of atoms held together by bonds, but there are gaps in between all of them. You just can't see it with the naked eye. All remote controls use signals similar to visible light, but since they are not visible light you just can't see them. Visible light can penetrate some kinds of materials (window glass), and can be reflected off other materials (mirror), so in the same way, the remote control signal (infrared or RF (radio frequency)) can penetrate or reflect off certain materials.
All the time, radio and TV signals are passing through your body.
Nothing is truly solid, some things are better at reflection, and some are better at absorption. Lead tends to absorb, rather than reflect I believe... so, if you pointed the remote at lead, it wouldn't work, period. Aluminum foil tends to reflect, so point it at aluminum foil on the opposite wall and it should work.
For instance, satellite dishes looks like this:
/
|
\_____________9
Where the 9 is actually the transmitter, pointing at the dish, and the dish itself reflects the signal to where it needs to go.
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