Is This Tesla Tower A Scam Or Just Bad Science?

A reminder that just because you can help crowdfund a project doesn't mean it's scientifically viable.






And then there's the noise. "They've chosen a frequency of 10 kHz, which is audible," says Lee. "So even though the electromagnetic waves are not audible, it will create audible waves in air. So everyone would hear a very loud whine that would drive us all insane in a short amount of time."

The scientists claim that it's necessary to build a full-scale prototype to test how the system works, but Lee disagrees with that as well. "This is stuff that you can simulate with equations," he says. "The simulations will tell you where the problems really are."

The original tower that Tesla began building in in 1901 was eventually called "Tesla's million dollar folly" and dismantled. Maybe it's just proof that even brilliant people can make mistakes.

"Tesla gave us AC power," Lee says. "He allowed us to electrify the Earth, that's given us our modern civilization. We owe Tesla a great debt. But that doesn't mean every idea he had was gold."

It also doesn't mean that people should exploit Tesla fandom to raise money for dubious projects. "To ask the public to engage in a large-scale project when you can certainly find out an awful lot about the economics without ever doing any of these large scale experiments—that to me either smells fishy or shows the naivete of the folks doing it," Lee says.

Add New Comment