Comment on I can whistle at the speed of sound

lowleveldata@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

• Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

  I mean, any other non-c speed really.

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  • Glowstick@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ 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.

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    • Bassman1805@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

      (For anyone curious, the speed of light in earth air is like 99.97% as fast as in vacuum)

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      • jaybone@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

        Bunch of nerds in this thread.

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      • LilDumpy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

        Ya, but that’s JUST slow enough to be able to see it.

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    • DannyBoy@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

      Maybe it’s going to be space lasers.

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      • 5oap10116@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

        Do you know what the religious affiliation of these space lasers will be?

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    • marcos@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ 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.

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      • sinkingship@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ 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?

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  • Eril@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

    I would be especially interested in speeds larger than c 🙂

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    • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

      Image

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  • Xavienth@lemmygrad.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

    Well that’s pretty easy, just fire it anywhere except a vacuum.

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    • PythagreousTitties@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

      But I never use my vacuum. Might as well fire a laser at it!

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    • dev_null@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ 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.

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      • qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ 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.

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    • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ 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.

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• AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

  Imagine if they made it fire so slow that you could just do a dark souls dodge roll to avoid it

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• Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

  Would you accept 10,000 times slower than the speed of light?

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  • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

    Still too fast to dodge.

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    • swordgeek@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Pffft. Amateur.

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  • Redderthanmisty@lemmygrad.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ 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

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• Jumuta@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

  just shine a laser through a thing of zircon (index of refraction=1.923~2)

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• rimjob_rainer@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

  Then we could finally have Star Wars laser guns.

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