Natural Science Forum / Physics / Research / November 2007

Welcome to the world of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. Beginning with the
work of Rabi, all the way back to 1938, it has by now become an entire
industry, earning two Nobel prizes, one in physics (1952) and one in
medicine (2003) under the monker of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
There's a lot of basic information about this technique on the web. You
may want to look at [1-4].

In general, these types of experiments belong to the field of
spectroscopy [5]. A signal, usually an electromagnetic wave is directed
at an the object's response is recorded. The response could be one of
many things: reflected/emitted/absorbed electromagnetic radiation,
sound, current/voltage, etc. The response is recorded and decomposed
into fundamental frequencies; this decomposition is called the spectrum.
The peaks of the spectrum (dominant frequencies) can tell us a lot about
the internal structure of the material.

This approach is very much like kicking a guitar. It produces a lot of
noice, but, as its strings are jarred into vibration, out of it you can
pick out the notes that the guitar is tuned to play.

More specifically, coming back to your question, if the signal is tuned
to the frequency of one of the spectral peaks, then we observe a strong
response at the same frequency (much stronger than any other
frequencies). This is just a manifestation of the general phenomenon of
resonance.

Hope this helps.

Igor

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NMR
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mri
[3] http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/nuclear/nmr.html
[4] http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/nuclear/mri.html
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectroscopy

That is a method used by esoteric pseudoscience to produce
"plant frequencies" "bioresonance" and related quack.

Physically, a "new" frequency can only be produced if
unlinear components are present, e.g. semiconducting contact
surfaces from corroded metal parts, or active electronic components.

All other objects will just act as capacitive or dielectric or
ohmic or inductive loads and will not create "new" freqencies
additionally to the exciting field. There is no specific signature
obtainable which marks a hammer or football or egg,
as you may expect.

A kitchen microwave oven fits exactly to the description of your
proposed experimental setup. Start doing your own experiments
by putting an egg into your microwave, and some other objects.

w.