Posted by David Brooks on December 11, 2003 at 13:57:28 from 208.210.80.40 user DavidBrooks.
In Reply to: Dowsing posted by John Nichols on December 10, 2003 at 18:39:11:
(I posted this comment earlier today, but put it in the first "dowsing" thread, which has moved down the page and possibly out of some people's vision ... then I noticed this thread, so I'm re-posting it here. I apologize for the duplication.)
The Hall effect is a slender reed that dowsers like to grasp when selling their services - but alas, if the Hall effect could take an iron rod that weighs several ounces and shift it against the friction of your skin, just think what it would do to the delicately-balanced needle of a compass! It would make compasses impossible to use - every underground flow would alter the reading. Since compasses work just fine even when held by dowsers, I think we can rule out that hypothesis.