Where Does the Power Go?

This topic might get a lukewarm response.....

It's absorbed by the nearest operational clothes dryer, which - owing to a peculiar and little known branch of quantum mechanics - uses the energy to destroy precisely one article of clothing being dried. Usually this is a sock (due to the, spin, shape and mass) but it can be other articles as well.

It gets sucked up by one of the so-called "over-unity" devices, hence the mysterious greater-than-input power output they seem to produce .

So...if I fill my trunk (boot) full of batteries, and then hook up about 2 dozen electric kettles on the hood (bonnet) and watch them very carefully...I'll never have to buy gas again!

Although I suppose if I even took my eyes off them for a second - say to look at a street sign - the car would immediately slam to a halt, setting off the airbags. Bummer.

Maybe I could train a dog (dog) to watch the kettles while I drive?

Yup, and if you couple your system to a magnetically-boosted HHO-generator slaved to a turbo retro-encabulator, after driving for one mile, your gas tank will overflow and you can sell off your excess fuel for a small profit because you would have achieved 100,000 miles to the gallon ......

Hmmmmm I think its something to do with the VSWR....

That's the Viewing Standing Wave Ratio..... Now as we all know maximum power is transferred only when the load impedance matches the source impedance.

The mains supply has a very low impedance and the kettle element has a high impedance.... Thus, when the kettle's power is 'viewed' most of the power consumed is in fact reflected back down the mains supply to be gobbled up (technical term) by the electricity meter!!!!

Upon a person not viewing the kettle the VSWR reverts to a sensible figure and the power is absorbed by the element heating the water....

_*Possibly*

This saying was started by some people who were so busy trying to watch the water boil that they completely forgot to turn the stove on to heat the water, hence "a watched pot never boils" is actually short for "The water in a pot will never boil if you don't turn the stove on, no matter how much it is watched!"

Made a good practical joke back to play on someone back then (kettle pot watcher watching), but now days we have TV and computers for entertainment (or a good book if you are so inclined).

What if the pot called the kettle black?