this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
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Showerthoughts

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People born after 2000 have never seen the cosmic microwave background on their TV set. (startrek.website)
submitted 1 day ago by Hobbes@startrek.website to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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The static on old CRT TVs with rabbit ears was the cosmic microwave background. No one in the last 25 years has ever seen it.

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[โ€“] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 4 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

Random radio sources, but a small part of the signal is CMB. I wasn't sure what you even meant by thermal noise but I believe it's a phenomenon of flatscreens. I found something that said it was "similar to snow on analog TVs" - so apparently there's a difference.

Funnily, Google AI says, "In the 1940s, people could detect the CMB at home by tuning their TVs to channel 03 and measuring the remaining static after removing other sources. This allowed them to prove the Big Bang before scientists did." So they had that going for 'em, which is nice.

[โ€“] piecat@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

"Thermal Noise" is a phenomenon where everything makes EM noise, just from thermal energy.

If you were to put such a TV in a faraday cage, with an RF termination, you would see something similar. Because noise is inherently part of the circuitry and amplifiers.