Posted on 11/10/2011 12:25:48 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
A University of Texas scientist is working on developing a technology that would delight Harry Potter fans everywhere--an invisibility cloak.
Ali Aliev uses carbon nanotubes--which look like pieces of thread--and then heats them up rapidly until the objects beneath them effectively disappear.You can watch the threads disappear as they are heated up in this video.
So how do the threads work? In a paper published in Nanotechnology in June, Aliev explains that the invisibility cloak exploits the "mirage effect." A highway can become so hot that small circles that look like puddles of water appear in the road. That happens when the road is so hot that the surface bends the light around it, so that the driver sees the reflected sky instead of the pavement. The carbon nanotubes create a similar effect.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The threads disappear, not the thing covered by the threads.
I did not see this coming.
No, the thing covered by the threads disappears also in the video embedded in the source story. Way cool.
He’s making invisible clothes for Emperor Baraq I as we speak.
Turns out he can’t remember where he put them.
Look at the (wooden?) structures holding the threads. They do indeed vanish when the nanotubes are heated.
Mirage effect from thermally modulated transparent carbon nanotube sheets” published in IOP Science
The single-beam mirage effect, also known as photothermal deflection, is studied using a free-standing, highly aligned carbon nanotube aerogel sheet as the heat source. The extremely low thermal capacitance and high heat transfer ability of these transparent forest-drawn carbon nanotube sheets enables high frequency modulation of sheet emperature over an enormous temperature range, thereby providing a sharp, rapidly changing gradient of refractive index in the surrounding liquid or gas.(see more)
Sorry, you’re right. Quite amazing.
I’m guessing DARPA will may take a slight interest in this.
It looks to me like an old magician trick done with mirrors.
It looks like the cloth is just reflecting the background to the left of the experiment which gives the perception of invisibility. Its all placement and camera angle.
Oh.....ah, yeah.....that's what I was gonna say.
I made an invisibility cloak once. But, I put it down somewhere and couldn’t find it again.
Darn it! Where is that thing!
You could be right, but I would think that an array of carbon fibers that can be reversably turned into a specular reflector by resistive heating would be pretty useful in certain quarters.
Earlier this year, Ray Baughman told NPR that he has created a special “multifunctional” yarn. Imagine a shirt that doubles as a battery or a soldier’s uniform that could cool him in the battlefield. (see more)
I bought a camo range finder once....
I was out putting up a deer stand...and laid it down. I forgot about it....until I got back to the truck.
Went back to get it...and I COULD NOT FIND IT!!! Man, I was ticked off!! LOL!!!
‘invisibility cloak’? Who needs it? Just get old. People don’t see or pay attention to you. They don’t even hear you. Grow a bunch of white hair which should reflect light, but they run you over in the street anyway. “I never saw them in the headlights.”
No worries — your version would have had amazing applications in the fashion industry.
Yes, yes, of course! But it still won’t make Harry happy.
“GET TO THA CHOPPAHH!!!”
This is just so cool....
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