The Fun Idea of Tin Foil Hats
Open the drawer in your kitchen and grab some aluminum foil. Twist it into a cone (maybe even wrap it twice) and place it. On your head. Do you feel safer now? The aluminum foil hat is perhaps the most iconic headwear for conspiracy theorists. It signals to others that you are unhinged, that you have a deep distrust of the government, or that you are genuinely concerned about extraterrestrials. It is a way to block electromagnetic waves from a centralized energy from entering your brain. Where does this myth come from and is there any real science behind it?
## Origins of the myth
The aluminum foil hat dates back to 1927 and was first seen about a decade ago in a short story titled “It’s a strange story written by Julian Huxley, whose brother Aldous was a prolific writer and author of. However, it was Julian who possibly first mentioned how to wrap your skull in aluminum foil.
### So, does it work?
Relatively few experiments have been conducted on the true effectiveness of aluminum foil hats, probably due to their ridiculous premise, but the question remains. Could a foil hat block electromagnetic waves from touching your brain? The idea is that the metal acts as a , blocking the passage of certain wavelengths. In 2005, a group of four cheeky MIT graduate students set out to answer the question with “On the Efficacy of Aluminum Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study”.
Recht went on to become a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley. When Gizmodo reached out to Recht’s former professor at MIT in 2005, who oversaw the lab where the experiment was conducted, he responded via email, “That was a joke, surprisingly taken seriously”. In the joking study, the authors say:
It has long been suspected that the government has been using satellites to read and control the minds of certain citizens. The use of aluminum helmets has been a common guerrilla tactic against the government’s invasive tactics. Surprisingly, these helmets can indeed help The government spies on citizens by amplifying certain key frequency ranges reserved for government use. Additionally, none of the three helmets we analyzed provided significant attenuation to most frequency bands.
Recht says no credibility should be given to the study and that it was mainly a joke at the expense of anyone using these helmets. However, they wrote that aluminum foil hats were ineffective at blocking most wavelengths. They actually tested three types of helmets: The Classic, The Fez, and the Centurion. The authors even offer their own conspiracy theory, writing about how aluminum foil hats amplify certain waves reserved for government. communications:
Helmets amplify frequency bands that coincide with those assigned to the U.S. government between 1.2 GHz and 1.4 GHz. According to the FCC, these bands are supposedly reserved for ‘local radio location (i.e., GPS), and other satellite communications. The 2.6 GHz band coincides with mobile phone technology. Although not affiliated with the government, these bands are in the hands of multinational corporations.
There is no need for any imagination to conclude that the current trend for helmets may have been propagated by the Government, possibly with the involvement of the FCC. We hope this report encourages the paranoid community to develop better helmet designs to avoid falling prey to these deficiencies.
## Why it’s widespread
Since 1926, conspiracy theories have only intensified throughout society, stimulating a resurgence of modern products promising Faraday cage capabilities to protect people from so-called dangers. These include modern aluminum foil hats that promise protection without the ridicule. Priced between $30 and $65, these are much more expensive than kitchen drawer aluminum foil.
