Imagine if they made it fire so slow that you could just do a dark souls dodge roll to avoid it
Comment on I can whistle at the speed of sound
lowleveldata@programming.dev 1 month ago
It’d be impressive if they fire it at like half the speed of light
AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 1 month ago
Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
Would you accept 10,000 times slower than the speed of light?
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
Still too fast to dodge.
swordgeek@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Pffft. Amateur.
Redderthanmisty@lemmygrad.ml 1 month ago
Yeah, but this requires that the light be travelling through a dense medium to slow down. It still speeds up again when travelling through air or vacuum
Jumuta@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
just shine a laser through a thing of zircon (index of refraction=1.923~2)
rimjob_rainer@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
Then we could finally have Star Wars laser guns.
Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 1 month ago
I mean, any other non-c speed really.
Glowstick@lemmy.world 1 month ago
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.
Bassman1805@lemmy.world 1 month ago
(For anyone curious, the speed of light in earth air is like 99.97% as fast as in vacuum)
jaybone@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Bunch of nerds in this thread.
LilDumpy@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Ya, but that’s JUST slow enough to be able to see it.
DannyBoy@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Maybe it’s going to be space lasers.
5oap10116@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Do you know what the religious affiliation of these space lasers will be?
marcos@lemmy.world 1 month ago
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.
sinkingship@mander.xyz 1 month ago
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?
Eril@feddit.org 1 month ago
I would be especially interested in speeds larger than c 🙂
Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Image
Xavienth@lemmygrad.ml 1 month ago
Well that’s pretty easy, just fire it anywhere except a vacuum.
PythagreousTitties@lemm.ee 1 month ago
But I never use my vacuum. Might as well fire a laser at it!
dev_null@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
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.
qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 1 month ago
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.
Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 1 month ago
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.