The Theoretical Invisible Human
Posted in I’m sure almost every single person at one point or another has longed to become invisible. I will not get into the amount of mischief that one could partake in while invisible.
It does not take a sane person to realize that invisibility is impossible. It just can’t happen. Right? Wrong.
Typically we think that to obtain invisibility we must alter our physical selves. Rather than alter our selves, what if we were able to alter the perception of others? One would not have to become literally invisible but invisible to others. If we stop thinking of invisibility as a physical trait and start thinking of it as an optical illusion then the idea is easier to digest.
Theoretical physicist, Dr Ulf Leonhardt believes the best example is the Invisible Woman, one of the superheros in the “Fantastic Four”. She guides light around her using a force field.
Invisibility is an optical illusion that the object or person is not there. Leonhardt uses the example of water circling around a stone. The water flows in, swirls around the stone and then leaves as if nothing was there.
“If you replace the water with light then you would not see that there was something present because the light is guided around the person or object. You would see the light coming from the scenery behind as if there was nothing in front,” he said. [Reuters]
“What the Invisible Woman does is curve space around herself to bend light. Theoretical devices would mimic that curved space,” he said.
The first devices would likely be used to bend radar waves, causing an object to become invisible to radar but not the the human eye. Devices to follow would be able to create visual invisibility. Oh, the possibilities…
If I was invisible I would…
Terry Cowgil said,
August 5, 2006 @ 11:26 am
I never thought of invisibility quite that way. I do know another possibility — technically difficult at this point — is to travel at greater than the speed of light. That way since light could never touch you, you would not be visible. It makes sense but I’m not sure if it would work. Any physicists out there who know the answer?
Janet Manko said,
August 6, 2006 @ 10:06 pm
Also, if you could travel at greater than the speed of light, wouldn’t that also open the door to the possibility of time travel? It then could occur that you’d only be visible in certain times that are not necessarily the present time. Just speculation of a rank amateur here, so I’ll repeat Terry’s question, any physicists out there with ideas?
fred said,
August 7, 2006 @ 8:50 pm
The Comic Dave Attel defines “Time Travel” as drinking so much that you black out, and wake up in situations that you dont remember getting to in the first place.
And in an old Kids Show “The Adventures of Pete and Pete”, the live in an unnamed state that borders a time zone, so on the hour of daylight savings time, the cross the border and move yet another hour back.
Although both are no real definition of “time travel”.. they both keep a person thinking about the posibility of it.
Tony Epworth said,
October 21, 2006 @ 11:44 am
It’s real and Leonhardt correctly suggested an answer, i.e. light flowing around an object much as water will flow around a stone. See Scientific American, October 19, 2006, “Invisibility cloak sees light of day.”
James said,
October 23, 2006 @ 11:50 am
Thanks for the update Tony.