Could the electromagnetic radiation (microwaves) from a mobile phone on the Moon be detected on Earth? The answer to the question involves using the inverse-square law for radiation and a consideration of bandwidth.
The starting point for this article was a question about mobile phones. In a lesson on space, a student asked whether a mobile phone would work on the Moon. The short answer is no. You could turn it on, but you wouldn’t be able to talk to anyone because you would be too far away from the nearest mobile phone mast, which is needed to receive and redirect the signal so that the call is routed to the phone whose number you called.
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