Equipment Corner – What Is EMF?

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Equipment Corner – What Is EMF?
August 13, 2009
Mark Davis
Examiner.com

I thought we would try something new today and we will see how it goes from there. I want to look at various pieces of equipment that are used by paranormal investigators and discuss them in a little detail. The primary point to remember is that most of the equipment used by a paranormal investigator was designed for other fields and has found a home in our field. Be that right or wrong, that’s where we are with the equipment. Some are starting to manufacture equipment directly for the paranormal industry; however their primary functions are based on the earlier non-paranormal devices.



Electro-Magnetic Field (EMF) detectors come in 2 basic styles, single axis and tri-axis. When speaking in terms of "axis" it is based on an X-Y-Z plain. Single axis meters measure in a straight plain from the "business" end of the meter and must be rotated up/down and back/forth to gain a proper reading of all three axes. These devices also have 2 sensors in them, one for the electric field and one for the magnetic field. These two fields are not the same and therefore cannot be measured the same. A tri-axis meter measures all 3 axes simultaneously. They have a total of six (6) sensors in them to accomplish this type of measurement.

Most of the meters in use by the paranormal investigators measure in terms of "milligauss". This is a unit of magnetic flux density equal to one-thousandth of a gauss. This is about to get a little more technical so hang on. Magnetic flux is the group of magnetic field lines emitted outward from the north pole of a magnet. Magnetic flux density is the amount of magnetic flux per unit area of a section, perpendicular to the direction of flux. The SI unit of measurement for magnetic flux is the weber (w). The SI unit of measurement for magnetic flux density is weber per square meter which equals a tesla. To learn more about this come to the East Coast Paranormal Investigators Conference in Philadelphia on October 10, 2009. We will be presenting a paper on EMF and have some more data for you to look at.

This is the base for all of our EMF detectors and I always felt it was important for people that use these devices to understand them a bit more. You want to know your equipment so you understand what readings you are getting. Coming up we will talk a little bit about some of the meters used today.