Using mercury to foil radar

[Discseven]

Heard that a vial of mercury sloshing about in sight of a radar beam foils that radar's accurate detection. Does anyone know if this is distinctly true, or, false?
.

[DonNewton]

So the mercury changes the dynamics of a 3000# car? Short answer: NO.

[Mark Salvetti]

Never heard that one, can't see how that would work.

Not to mention what you've got on your hands if the vial breaks and spills the mercury in the car.

Mark

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Mark Salvetti

Never heard that one, can't see how that would work.

Not to mention what you've got on your hands if the vial breaks and spills the mercury in the car.

Mark

This.

And and even if you covered the car in mercury it is moving and the Doppler effect continues to be seen by the RADAR. It might disperse a LASER beam a little.

[fanaudical]

Hi, Karl - Totally false.

[boyt911sc]

Originally Posted by Discseven

Heard that a vial of mercury sloshing about in sight of a radar beam foils that radar's accurate detection. Does anyone know if this is distinctly true, or, false?
.

Karl,

You are intelligent and smart and can’t believe this post came from you. Must be a side effect of extended quarantine! Not even close to the TRUTH. One thing I know about Hg is that it is very costly to dispose Hg waste. I remember well when I was a kid long long time ago that we played this in our hands. And my father was medical doctor but today people are more educated than ever. Stay safe.

Tony

[wildthing]

Originally Posted by boyt911sc

I remember well when I was a kid long long time ago that we played this in our hands.

Ah those were the days... I may have broken a thermometer once just for the pleasure of playing with it... ah those beads of mercury coming together in my hands (or maybe it was on the floor, I forget...)

[IROC]

We have about 420 gallons (43,000 lbs) at work if you'd like to try it out.

[stevej37]

Lol

I heard plutonium works best.

[UROParts]

Surprisingly, it actually works. The hard part is talking the officer into holding a vial of mercury in front of his/her radar gun.

[pmax]

Mercury's poisonous.

Anything metallic should work !

[stownsen914]

Wrapping the car in foil works as well

[Synchro Joe]

[ClickClickBoom]

There was a traffic cop in SJC who liked to set up a radar trap and bag some airline mechanics on their way home after shift. After a few tickets the mechanics hung the nose of a DC10 over the fence and tilted the weather radar to line up with the cop position. A couple mechs drove by at legal speeds and called the onshift guys that the cop was there. They fired up the APU, warmed up the radar and sent one of their guys out to get burritos. After their guy was approaching the cop they gave the radar a few sweeps, and the cop left soon after, to never return to his duck pond again.

[Discseven]

Am not implying mercury works to foil radar or doesn't. Was questioning if there was any metallurgical basis for it working. To put it nonscientifically, could be mercury has some property that is "interesting" to radar---even in a small amount---and at same time disruptive to the calculations radar makes.

[dannobee]

You'd have much better luck taking apart an old microwave oven and robbing the "gunn diode oscillator/ TED" along with a couple of other key components and assembling a radar jammer. If the car has a vehicle speed sensor, you could even program the jammer to throw out a signal that gives only a percentage of your current speed instead of the true speed when it senses a radar signal. Or simply output a fixed signal that will be displayed on the radar gun.

But this is old school technology. Most police use lasers instead of radar now.

If you've ever used a radar gun, or any speed estimating device for that matter, even for a couple of hours, you'd know that you can get pretty good at estimating speed and just use the radar/laser to confirm the speed. Usually you'd get your own estimate down to within a couple of mph.

[GH85Carrera]

A radar jammer is 100% illegal in the USA.

Myth Busters did a fun episode trying all the different methods to fool the radar. Stuff way beyond what anyone would hang on their car. Nothing at all worked. Nothing. The Radar got it every time. They even had a canon blast aluminum foil pieces into the air.

A jammer will work, but it is a federal offense.

[Cajundaddy]

Originally Posted by Discseven

Am not implying mercury works to foil radar or doesn't. Was questioning if there was any metallurgical basis for it working. To put it nonscientifically, could be mercury has some property that is "interesting" to radar---even in a small amount---and at same time disruptive to the calculations radar makes.

Mercury *should* be reflective to radar but so is the car. A typical radar gun will target the largest mass so if 3 cars are traveling together, the largest mass will get pinged unless the operator manually targets a different one. 1 lb of Mercury in a 3000lb vehicle will have no effect.

[dicklague]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

A radar jammer is 100% illegal in the USA.

Myth Busters did a fun episode trying all the different methods to fool the radar. Stuff way beyond what anyone would hang on their car. Nothing at all worked. Nothing. The Radar got it every time. They even had a canon blast aluminum foil pieces into the air.

A jammer will work, but it is a federal offense.

Here in CA they use lots of laser. A laser "modifyer" or Jamer is a fixit ticket.

I did not say that I have a radar detector or any of that stuff!!

[DonNewton]

To tag on (again), if Hg worked to "fool" a radar return, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) would have about a thousand 500# brains running around going crazy. After the hundreds of millions of dollars the country has spent on reducing radar cross sections in airplanes and ships was proven to be wasted, we'd really have a soap opera on TV. I'm also presuming we all know how radar works. . . Too bad this wasn't posted on 1 April!