Learning Portal
Plain-language explanations of the concepts behind Open Energy experiments. Start anywhere — every topic links to the experiments and blog posts where it comes up.
18 topics across 4 categories
These three concepts appear together in 26% of the 768 analyzed energy patents. Understanding them is the key to understanding everything else on the platform.
When you suddenly cut power to a coil, it kicks back — hard. That kick-back energy is what several experiments try to capture.
Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity. Simple in principle, surprisingly complex in practice.
Frequency components created when a signal passes through a non-linear element. The 2nd harmonic is double the original frequency, the 3rd is triple, and so on.
When doubling the input doesn't double the output, interesting things start happening.
Sharp bursts of energy often produce effects that continuous power doesn't.
When a system is driven at its natural frequency, energy builds up instead of dissipating.
Two conductors separated by an insulator. Stores energy in an electric field. The yin to the inductor's yang.
The fraction of time a signal is 'on' versus 'off'. A 10% duty cycle means on for 10%, off for 90%.
Resistance's more sophisticated cousin — it accounts for how components resist AC signals at different frequencies.
A coil of wire that stores energy in a magnetic field. The more turns, the more inductance.
An inductor and a capacitor connected together. The simplest circuit that can resonate.
An electronic switch that turns on and off billions of times per second. The component that makes pulsed excitation possible.
A pocket-sized instrument that measures how circuits respond across a range of frequencies. The most important tool in your kit.
How long energy rings in a resonant system before it dissipates. High Q = energy stays longer.
The language that network analyzers speak. S11 tells you how much signal bounces back; S21 tells you how much passes through.
The frequency where a coil or capacitor stops being itself and starts being a resonant circuit.
Topics link to each other and to the experiments. Start with one and follow the connections — you'll understand the whole system faster than you think.