disturbed, this one way is the only way (nobody has thought of any other way) the soil could have been heated. It could have been done by induction heating.
To quote from a section entitled Induction Heating from an electrical engineering textbook:
A rod of solid metal or any electrical conductor, when subjected to an alternating magnetic field, has electromotive forces set up in it. These electromotive forces cause what are known as “eddy currents.” A rise in temperature results from “eddy currents.”
Induction heating is a common method of melting metals in a foundry.
Replace the “rod of solid metal” mentioned above with damp sand, an electrical conductor, and assume that a something that was generating a powerful alternating magnetic field was hovering over the ground, and you can explain how the grass roots were charred. To get an alternating magnetic field, some type of electrical equipment was needed. Electricity—electrical sparks—the holes burned in the cap “by electric sparks.”
UFO propulsion comes into the picture when one remembers Dr. Einstein’s unified field theory, concerning the relationship between electro-magnetism and gravitation.
If this alternating magnetic field can heat metal, why didn’t everything the scoutmaster had that was metal get hot enough to burn him? He had a flashlight, machete, coins in his pocket, etc. The answer—he wasn’t under the UFO for more than a few seconds. He said that when he stopped to really look at it he had backed away from under it. He did feel some heat, possibly radiating from the ground.
To further pursue this line of speculation, the scoutmaster repeatedly mentioned the unusual odor near the UFO. He described it as being “sharp” or “pungent.” Ozone gas is “sharp” or “pungent.” To quote from a chemistry book, “Ozone is prepared by passing air between two plates which are charged at a high electrical potential.” Electrical equipment again. Breathing too high a concentration of ozone gas will also cause you to lose consciousness.
I used to try out this induction heating theory on people to get their reaction. I tried it out one day on a scientist from Rand.