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According to the Gell-Mann amnesia effect, the same people also write about politics, environment and society.
That sounds neat, I won’t look it up
Yeah, they probably have it all figured out.
It was coined by Michael Crichton, you know, the man behind the Jurassic Park. Big Dino man can’t lie. And if they lie they are instantly forgiven.
He was a anthropogenic climate change denier. I guess you can forgive him instantly but I don’t.
This picture got so much compression artifacts just in 3 days lol.
That’s the lasers working.
It’d be impressive if they fire it at like half the speed of light
Then we could finally have Star Wars laser guns.
I mean, any other non-c speed really.
Actually, c is the speed of light in a vacuum, but light travels slower through a medium, like air. So lasers shot through air will actually travel slower than c.
(For anyone curious, the speed of light in earth air is like 99.97% as fast as in vacuum)
Ya, but that’s JUST slow enough to be able to see it.
Bunch of nerds in this thread.
You’re in science_memes what did you expected?
hot science girls
Where?
exactly where they should be.
Maybe it’s going to be space lasers.
Do you know what the religious affiliation of these space lasers will be?
Flying Spaghetti Monster
rAmen
You have a lot of chutzpah to ask such a question. Oy! What would your mother say?
“You’re so skinny why are you not eating”
A laser strong enough to be used as a weapon will probably not leave a lot of medium on its path.
But the front-most part will still travel at less than c. It will just speed-up after a while.
I’m curious. What happens to the medium? Does it simply get pushed aside? Or pushed along? Or will it eat up some energy and react to something else?
Much like lightning, a powerful enough laser will ionize the air. That ionized air is hot and rises, just like the ionized gasses from combustion.
A powerful laser will look like a beam of fire.
I would be especially interested in speeds larger than c 🙂
Well that’s pretty easy, just fire it anywhere except a vacuum.
But I never use my vacuum. Might as well fire a laser at it!
Yes, ofc - but we’re talking about a weapon here, the air is implied as a medium, and the very-near-c with it.
But a weapon that would construct some sort of structure or a tunnel between it’s position and the target would be something else indeed.
It’s still travelling at c, it’s just bouncing around the medium’s particles on the way. It arrives later because it’s not going in a straight line.
I don’t think that’s a great way of thinking about it. I think you’re describing something more like scattering — or maybe absorption and stimulated or spontaneous emission — which does indeed happen, but is distinct from the index of a medium.
If it were indeed “bouncing,” optics wouldn’t really work, as any n > 0 medium would cause the light to go every which way.
If you fire a laser that goes first through vacuum, then through a lens, then again in vacuum, at what speed is the light travelling on the other side?
It’s same as it was at first. The speed of light depends on the index of refraction of the medium it’s in, but doesn’t depend on its “history.”
I didn’t write it out, but what I was trying to get at was that if it would “slow down”, then it would be slower on the other side. The explanation that the light travels longer through a medium with the same speed would therefore make sense to me.
But then again, how it wouldn’t shoot out in every direction, that doesn’t make sense to me.
I don’t know much about light, that’s why i’m asking. And i’m sure some article or paper would have anwers for that question, I might search it on my own.
just shine a laser through a thing of zircon (n=index of refraction=1.923~2)
so speed of the laser in the zircon = c/n ~c/2
Would you accept 10,000 times slower than the speed of light?
Still too fast to dodge.
Imagine if they made it fire so slow that you could just do a dark souls dodge roll to avoid it
Wake me up when I can buy a lightsaber.
Sweet dreams
There was an auction that started at the price of 69420 USD on the 1st of april of 2022
. .
.
.
(The lightsaber is real, selling an extremely dangerous weapon was the joke)
Water is wet
Easy there, that’s quite a can of worms you’re tipping over.
Indeed, many would argue that water can’t be wet, only things that water gets on/in.
Have you not seen those Blaster from the galaxy far far away that fire laser half the speed of sound?
Those are changed plasma bolts
I can run at the speed of fat
deleted by creator
Is there a way to not?
The medium that the laser goes through could slow it down, but it would still be insanely fast.
It would also still be the speed of light. Always is, unless you specify ‘in a vacuum’ every time.
The real fun starts when things move faster than the speed of light, that’s when you get Cherenkov radiation!
Adding to the fun - The light is still going the same speed within the medium, but it’s bumping into more things. Those collisions divert the light, lengthening the distance it travels through something like 1 cm of glass vs 1 cm in a vacuum. It changes the time it takes to travel through glass rather than the speed at which the light is moving.
At least that’s what I remember from a YouTube video.
Yes that’s it! Thanks for the link!!
I’d be more impressed if they didn’t.
uh ackchuyally it’s not the speed of light
Uhm ackshully it is
it’s not. Light only travels at c in a vacuum.
If you want to be pedantic, you got it the wrong way around light always travels at the speed of light. C only refers to the speed light reaches in a vacuum.
That’s what I wrote. Literally.
Headline says that it can fire at the speed of light though not that it does.
…point taken.
But it’s a laser. However fast it’s going, it’s going the speed of itself!
“Ackchyually” indeed, LOL
I am being pedantic here, but if the laser travel at the same speed as c in a given medium, then it is going at the speed of light.
Somebody failed their pedantry 101
If you really want to be pedantic, c is the notation for the “speed of light in a vacuum”, not just the “speed of light”, which depends on the medium.
Which is what I was going for. But as flughoernchen already said, it can.
Now we just have to bring that laser into space. Or shoot into outer space. An idea so cool, I’m disappointed I didn’t think of it.
Does not make it “not the speed of light”, only not c. Also the laser would fire particles with the speed of c if fired in a vacuum.
Impressive. The future is awesome! Can we maybe apply this to regular light too? Maybe even green light? Or purple? I’m so excited.
Is purple actually a light color?
Well, for the green light we already have FTL tech, it was invented and perfected by the car behind you as you are waiting for the light to turn green.
Ohhhh right. My bad Sorry…
When you go from green to purple, the light gets more excited too.
insert sensitive chuckle-magazine-guy-meme
sensitive chuckle
Chuckling whilst cold-sore?
The army trembling when I bring a mirror
NOW YOU FUCKED UP!
World around
Around the world
World around
Around the world
SUPER.
HOT.
But can it shit at the precise speed to fully hit individual turbojets fan blades?
I can run at the speed of running, where is my headline?
Honestly I’d be more impressed by the Star Wars kind that go about thirty miles an hour.
Those aren’t lasers. They’re contained plasma projectiles.
What has science done?!
Has Science Really Gone Too Far Even as Decided to Use Even Go Want to do Look More Like?
Is this a reference to something or just aneurism posting?
It was the OG Aneurism Posting
