This could be the greatest invention ever!
If this works, we'll finally have an endless free source of electricity.<< Previous | EatLiver.com | Next >>
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kainim (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010) Reply
nope, the light will partially transform into thermical energy, and eventually disperse Dr Sci (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010)
I did this once. Can't turn the damned thing off now. Keeps me awake at night. sack! (Sunday, 13 Jun 2010)
ive always wondered if it was even theoretically posible if i could do something like that in the vaccum... with perfect mirrors arranged at a distance of 300.000 km giving me a 2 second window to move the mirror... also the mirrors would be hotter than the laser so it wouldn't absorb thermical energy from him... could it work? Sheldon (Tuesday, 15 Jun 2010)
Yawwn... been there done that Lord Byte (Sunday, 4 Jul 2010)
Mirrors don't reflect perfectly, law of conservation of energy and such... (Stand between two mirrors and notice each reflection in the mirror will get progressively darker) Which means that in an instant all light will be "used up" (ie converted into heat most likely, absorbed by the mirror). Merrrrrrrr (Sunday, 11 Jul 2010)
You do know that the mirror absorbs some of the light right? There is no such thing as a mirror with 100% reflectivity. WinDyX (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010) Reply
This can work only in theory because light is actually small particles that do hit others, and considering the air molecules that exist between the mirrors the light will eventually disappear because the tahions(light molecules) will hit and "bounce-off" their trajectory. litebrite (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010)
Whoa there bucko, small particles? Light is a wave particle duality. Cynical Sam (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010)
"Wave Particle 'Duality'"??? What kind of non-committal, "split-the-difference" BS is that? Particle or Wave? Take a stand. docnoc (Tuesday, 15 Jun 2010)
Then water in the ocean must be a wave particle duality also? Chief Wiggum (Wednesday, 16 Jun 2010)
Whoa! Slow down Poindexter. Are you saying that light is small articles? Kurdong (Tuesday, 22 Jun 2010)
Oh, xkcd has comment thread to now?? Oh wait, this isn't.... Jack (Friday, 13 Aug 2010)
light isn't particles. Light has no mass. ehem (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010) Reply
Well, if you acctually moved the mirrors faster than the speed of light, time for the relative mirror would elapse backwards thus resulting in the contraction of light from the flashlight, ergo no light. suck it. S (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010) Reply
1. You don't have to move the mirror faster than light. Just widen the distance between the mirrors and you'll have plenty of time 2. to make this happen the mirror must be perfect and the light won't change his status into other forms of energy like heat or anything like it 3. ok, we imagine it would work what would you have archived? Best thing you could do with it, is to create a very expensive flash granade. you'd have (Sunday, 13 Jun 2010)
a very accurate timepiece bleh (Saturday, 10 Jul 2010)
if you even saw light from thsi experiment it would mean light was eascaping the "eternal reflection". and that point alone makes this idea pointless. That guy in the wheelchair (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010) Reply
It's impossible to go faster than the speed of light. archie (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010)
@that guy in the wheelchair: Tachyons move faster than light. nice (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010)
It's possible, but it creates new .. science stuff. rick'james (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010)
it's chucks micro owen LoL (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010) Reply
i didnt knew that eatliver was an encyclopedia of physics, this comments are very intersting xxchegexx (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010) Reply
If you invent the mechanism that puts the mirror there faster than the speed of light, you are already a millionaire. :) zoli (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010)
lolz!well said!! wtf (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010) Reply
its a joke retards, stop thinking about going faster than light, this isnt star treck you (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010)
gtfo Chestica (Monday, 14 Jun 2010)
Actually wtf, this is indeed Star Trek and you are no longer invited to our fun physics parties. You have the dumb. js_cooldude (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010) Reply
I'm surprised nobody mentionned the MILLIONARE (instead of millionaire) Millionare (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010)
Screw the grammar, i have money! AuntFanny (Monday, 14 Jun 2010)
JS_Coolguy = it is spelled Millionaire. If you're English, like me, and thus invented the goddamn language. ogoboso (Monday, 14 Jun 2010)
Aunt Fanny - your people may have invented it but you obviously fail to understand it. @ archie (Monday, 14 Jun 2010)
And... we've never been able to confirm or deny tachyons, so your comment is worthless. @ Aunt Fanny (Monday, 14 Jun 2010)
Unless you're around a thousand years old and use perfect old English, STFU. Your invention sucks. (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010) Reply
It is theoretically possible to trap light in a sphere, that has perfect reflecting material all around. However it wouldn't be practical, because you wouldn't see any light outside of it. As for the caricature - you wouldn't have to move your flat mirror faster than light. I'd be enough to move it fast. Just stand far away from the other mirror. Light will have to trawel for some time. @Your invention sucks (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010)
no dbr (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010) Reply
Well you wouldn't see the light that's trapped in there anyway :( (tried it, seriously. i know it was there, but i also know that i couldn't see it cuz in that case the light should be getting out from the construction) Curious Kid (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010) Reply
Used a laser pen bewteen my bathroom opened medicine cabinet mirror and the main mirror. It created various geometric lattices, spiral and grid effects. COOL!!! whatever (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010) Reply
Just put the flashlight in a cryogenic vat close to Absolute Zero. Then the photons will be moving so slowly you can slip the mirror in by hand, or what's left of your hand. kypes (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010) Reply
lmfao, actually a lazer (the word lazer is an acronym, Light Amplification something or another) and some of them work a bit like that.. You might look into how lazers work. @kypes (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010)
Pedantic FAIL. L.A.S.E.R (not "Lazer") stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. pastafarian (Monday, 14 Jun 2010)
since my lord the FSM said so... lastresort09 (Saturday, 12 Jun 2010) Reply
There is such a thing as thermal energy... if it is lost the light loses its intensity... read on some physics before hand please. beforehand (Sunday, 13 Jun 2010)
yes read first hand later i know (Sunday, 13 Jun 2010)
i think light is good when mirrors break and fall down uh non im us (Sunday, 13 Jun 2010) Reply
dude ive thought about this before, this one makes me laugh hella hard ahah... i wanted to do it with a lazer pointer when i was 6 Cacafuti (Sunday, 13 Jun 2010) Reply
if you cant move that mirror faster than the speed of light... i think that will be more interensting JohnP (Monday, 14 Jun 2010) Reply
You've just discovered the Optic Fiber technology! Unfortunately, it's already invented PSYMN (Monday, 14 Jun 2010)
Agreed, except that fiber optics has the additional useful feature of actually letting the light out where you need it. Otherwise, you may as well just *tell* people that you have light bouncing around in your black box and if anyone opens it, you can act like they just let it out. Common sense says that . . . (Tuesday, 15 Jun 2010) Reply
. . . I'd rather just invent a flashlight that never runs out of power when you most need it . . . 45 (Tuesday, 15 Jun 2010)
A Chernobyl flashlight.. yes.. yes.. that might work Mr. Science (Wednesday, 16 Jun 2010) Reply
Actually, this wouldn't work, you'd only have a finite number of photons in the mirror. You don't need to move the second mirror in at the speed of light either, if you want to try this at home ^^ gee (Wednesday, 16 Jun 2010) Reply
maybe it's been said before: even if it works, when you use energy (or light) from it, then, well, the energy/light inside reduces. so best case it's kind of a light battery. RAngel (Thursday, 17 Jun 2010) Reply
To have this work, you would need mirrors on every side, BUT if it is a "mirror" then it is not useful, BUT if you had "see through mirrors" such as a interrogation room, well, it may actually be useful, and work! Remus (Wednesday, 23 Jun 2010)
Uh, no. Because the very nature by which human eyes work, requires photons, thats the stuff bouncing around.. hitting the different biological sensors in your eye. If it was actually capturing all the light, you wouldn't see it because no photons are colliding with your eye's interior. And if we used your idea, that means that some of the photons are lost by them traveling through the "partially" reflective surface that allows you to see into the inside of the container but ultimately results in you needing to add more photons to container. Impractical to say the least, and pointless at best. mine (Thursday, 24 Jun 2010) Reply
it's not useful if light *go* outside it's not useful if light *doesn't go* outside Anders (Saturday, 3 Jul 2010) Reply
I dont get it, if the light reflects perfectly between mirrors you cant see it, so you cant use it as a flashlight and as a energy source where would the energy come from. Amused (Saturday, 17 Jul 2010) Reply
Ha, this is a funny idea, and it made me laugh. Even though it's obviously impossible. Rather than laugh at more funny things, I'd like to argue about why it wouldn't work with strangers. Psh.. Bob (Thursday, 5 Aug 2010) Reply
I'm pretty sure they got the carbon nanotubes to reflect light as in which this defines. Jack (Friday, 13 Aug 2010) Reply
Isn't this impossible? The universe is filled with dust, gas, and other inconvenient obstacles. So the light would loose energy travelling through this, so the light would run out? I think i would only work if you had 1. a perfect mirror (impossible) 2. a perfect vaccum (impossible) 3. a frickin huge space to do it in (kind of impossible) and even if you did all those things it would make a pointless thing. Jack (Friday, 13 Aug 2010) Reply
Me and my friend have £5 bet on this. He thinks its right, i think its wrong. Help me prove him wrong! |