Media alt text:
3D render of old tv set with animated static on its screen, as if tuned to a dead channel.

  • @badcommandorfilename
    52•3 months ago

    That is a good question, but I suspect if you tried this in real life it would still show static.

    • The waves are amplified with a circuit that attempts to find a signal even if it’s very weak (so you can get a picture even if you’re close or very far from the tv station)
    • At a certain point, the electromagnetic field from the running TV itself would start to get picked up

    I suspect a better thought experiment would be if you just disconnected the input and amplification circuit entirely from the CRT tube, in which case you would probably just get white as the electron beam scans back and forth without any modulation.

    • @[email protected]
      10•3 months ago

      Let me turn that around:

      Would a TV still show static if you disconnected the input and amplification circuit outside a Faraday cage?

      • @[email protected]
        8•3 months ago

        Likely a uniform white picture since the impedance of the input wire is too high for ambient noise on the line to result in any differentiated interlacing.