We Never Know
No Slack
Hmmm. Not a subject I excel in but what I understand it's very interesting.
Researchers develop way to control speed of light, send it backward
Researchers develop way to control speed of light, send it backward
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Researchers develop way to control speed of light, send it backward
- Thread starter We Never Know
- Start date
I've used a mirror to send light backwards.
The only problem is that there's always some hideous threatening guy in it.
We fight until the mirror breaks.
The only problem is that there's always some hideous threatening guy in it.
We fight until the mirror breaks.
We Never Know
No Slack
You have to fight him to show him who's boss. Every time you look at him he's always eyeballing you.
I know!
You've seen him too?
whirlingmerc
Well-Known Member
Light travels slower in glass than a vacuum inverse to the optical index of the material
My professor said he thought it was a macro effect but really light was being absorbed and reemitted on a molecular level and only appeared to be slowed
dianaiad
Well-Known Member
Scientists have been able to slow light DOWN for awhile now; pass it through various things...as for sending it backwards, I think a poster just mentioned that all you need to do that is a mirror.
It's the 'speeding light up to 30 times the 'speed of light'" that has me flurmuggled. If 'they' can speed anything up past the 'speed of light,' even light itself, then, er, doesn't that throw a huge monkey wrench into things?
I thought that nothing went faster than the established speed of light? (except, of course, the universe itself, eventually, but that might be an interesting problem to deal with--)
I'm astrophysically challenged. Just consider this, if anybody is actually knowledgeable about this stuff, a stupid question that the asker really would like answered.
We Never Know
No Slack
Did you read the link? From the link.
"Previous attempts at controlling the speed of light have included passing light through various materials to adjust its speed. The new technique, however, allows the speed to be adjusted for the first time in the open, without using any pass-through material to speed it up or slow it down.
"This is the first clear demonstration of controlling the speed of a pulse light in free space,"
I think I'll wait for the movie version...
dianaiad
Well-Known Member
yes. I read the link. That's where I found the basis for my question regarding the ability to speed light up 30 times. Do you have the answer to that question?
We Never Know
No Slack
Nope. As I stated I'm not real knowledgeable on the subject. But I can help you with something, light into a mirror isn't reversing light, it's reflecting light.
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Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber & Business Owner
Reflecting light is no more sending light backwards than bouncing a ball on the on the ground sends the ball in reverse.
dianaiad
Well-Known Member
OK. again, I'm astrophysically challenged. However, unless we are talking 'backwards' in the dimension "time,' then 'backwards' is a direction in one of the three dimensions...a 190 degree change in direction if the mirror is placed precisely enough, yes?
Now it is true that when we look into a mirror and see ourselves, it is not WE who are being 'sent' anywhere. We are not both standing in front of the mirror and IN it. Our image is being "reflected," not 'sent backward."
Since we are talking about the light waves/particles themselves, and not the image they carry to our eyes, I think we can safely state that the light itself is being sent in a different direction; back into our eyes. Backward.
If the article meant 'backwards in time," it should have SAID so. As for me, I'm perfectly willing to look supremely foolish in my ignorance if it will get my question answered, even if it is a question that a six year old who can properly add and subtract would know. I know that it is possible for you mathematical and scientific types to do this. One of the things I like most about Einstein is that while he expressed his theory with mathematical equations to the science and mathematically inclined, he did most of his work with 'thought experiments' that make perfectly good sense to me. I could follow his 'man on a train that two bolts of lightening hit' thought experiment just fine. Made sense.
I am truly curious about the 'speeding up,' thing.
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WalterTrull
Godfella
What is the speed of thought? Well, of mind? (It can be construed that some of us think rather slowly and not in a straight line.)
dianaiad
Well-Known Member
THAT is sending the ball elsewhere. However, I have a scar that divides my left eyebrow, and reminds me every time I attempt to 'shape' said eyebrows that it is indeed possible to send a ball in reverse. I acquired said scar when I was ten and pitching a softball game. The batter returned a perfect line drive that hit me in the nose, broke my glasses (but not, thank heaven, the nose) and produced a prodigiously spectacularly bleed from the cut that produced the scar.
Unless you are trying to tell me that the ball that one bounces on the ground isn't the same ball that one caught in the first place? I mean, really....if one can deflect, or send, the ball one catches to the ground, then it is also possible to return it to it's precise origin, yes? You know, 'backward?'
As I mentioned in another post, if that's not what the authors of the article meant, they should have been more specific.
Oh, and thank you for providing the ball example. It actually illustrates what I was saying very well.
Jumi
Well-Known Member
I would love to see a presentation of this, so I don't make false conclusions. If my intuition is right (just guessing what the results are and how they are achieved... I don't claim expertise), this could make a breakthrough in communications technology in ten-twenty years.
Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber & Business Owner
I meant actually going in reverse rather than a change in trajectory.
dianaiad
Well-Known Member
How is that different? I'm serious here, and not attempting to be obstructionist...the only difference I see is the angle of the reflective surface. If it is exactly right, then 'it' (whether the ball or the light) is going to go in 'reverse.'
That is, it will go back exactly along the path it took to reach the mirror/whatever.
I'm having trouble expressing my thoughts here, so please bear with me. When a car goes in reverse, it remains the same car, yes? It simply follows the path it took to get to the spot at which the driver began to back up?
When light reaches a reflective surface and bounces back along the path it took to get there, it's 'going back,' isn't it? It doesn't change anything except the trajectory it's traveling in. Other light particles/waves will go in other trajectories, which is why two people looking at the same mirror from different angles can see each other, but not themselves. Their images are being 'reflected,' but the light itself is actually traveling along different paths, including one that is the precise path taken to reach the mirror in the first place. "Going back."
So we've been 'sending light backwards" ever since the first of us looked into a still pond and saw herself. So...if the authors of this article don't mean that, what DO they mean? Are they talking about adding time as an element? They should have said so, if so...and I'm still really curious about the speeding up bit. Especially speeding light up by 30 times. THAT one, if true, has a whole bunch of really striking possibilities, including, but not limited to, space travel. So...I'm trying really hard to find out about this, but so far all I've been able to find are people who say 'no, nothing goes faster than light" except those who conjecture that the universe itself may someday expand faster than light can travel. THAT one is mind boggling.
Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber & Business Owner
No. The path is being redirected. The light going in reverse has been described as "negative speed," and it goes backwards without an object reflecting it/changing the trajectory, as is the case with a ball or light reflecting off a mirror.
dianaiad
Well-Known Member
OK...thanks...I think. I have no idea what you just said. "Negative speed?" Would that not involve time? I have to tell you that this is a concept I'm not grokking.
Einstein was much better at explaining stuff. Couldn't you put that 'ball' or particle of light, on a train with lightening bolts and explain it?