system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5- What is the static that plays when a radio is tuned to a number without a radio station?
gpt
The entire radio spectrum is "noisy"--there's interference in it from both man-made sources and natural ones (e.g. lightning strikes). If you tune the radio to a dead channel then all it will be picking up is that noise, which it amplifies and turns into the static that you hear. You still get the noise on actual radio channels, but it gets drowned out by the radio station you're tuned in to so you tend not to notice unless it's very bad.