this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 251 points 8 months ago (9 children)

It'd be impressive if they fire it at like half the speed of light

[–] [email protected] 79 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I mean, any other non-c speed really.

[–] [email protected] 101 points 8 months ago (5 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 8 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 23 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Bunch of nerds in this thread.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (3 children)

You're in science_memes what did you expected?

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Maybe it's going to be space lasers.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 8 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 20 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You have a lot of chutzpah to ask such a question. Oy! What would your mother say?

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I would be especially interested in speeds larger than c 🙂

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (8 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

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

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months 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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[–] [email protected] 115 points 8 months ago (5 children)

I have a dollar store laser pointer than can also travel at the speed of light

[–] [email protected] 39 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Pssh, I have a 30 year old flashlight that can do the same.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Wait until you learn how old my sun is

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Your sun's light can travel at the speed of light?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago
  • Claims to travel at the speed of light.

  • Still takes eight minutes to get here.

Sus.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The laser pointer can travel the light of speed? If you turn it on, does the laser not come out of the laser pointer?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago (3 children)

The laser and the laser pointer are both traveling away from each other at the speed of light, so from the pointer's perspective the laser is traveling at twice the speed of light.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You are being downvoted as if your point was offensive or harmful. You are wrong, but it's totally counter intuitive and I think this is a mistake that everyone makes when studying introductory physics. This would be correct for anything moving at relatively low speeds. But when you're talking about light, or anything that goes so fast that "percentage of the speed of light" starts being a useful unit to describe their speed, this concept starts being a bit weirder.

This is actually the basic principle of Einstein's theory of relativity: the speed of light (in a vacuum) is the same for all observers, regardless of their frame of reference. That means that if the laser pointer emits a laser, the light is moving away from the pointer at the speed of light. If the pointer itself is moving at a speed reeeeeally close to the speed of light... Then the laser will STILL be traveling away from the pointer at the speed of light. And if you, an observer in a frame, see the pointer moving at near the speed of light emit a laser... The laser that the laser emitted is also traveling at the speed of light from your point of view.

And there's no wordplay here. I don't mean that it's light, so of course any speed it travels at is the speed of light. I mean that if you measure its speed from any reference frame, you will get around 300000000 m/s, or around 671 million miles per hour. No matter if you are also traveling at near light speed.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago

Oh wow. TIL.

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[–] [email protected] 109 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The army trembling when I bring a mirror

[–] [email protected] 80 points 8 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 73 points 8 months ago

SUPER.

HOT.

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[–] [email protected] 79 points 8 months ago (8 children)

I have wifi router that emits microwaves at the speed of light.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Pffft, I have a microwave that emits microwaves at microwave speeds to microwave things.

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[–] [email protected] 70 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Impressive. The future is awesome! Can we maybe apply this to regular light too? Maybe even green light? Or purple? I'm so excited.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

When you go from green to purple, the light gets more excited too.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Well, for the green light we already have FTL tech, it was invented and perfected by the car behind you as you are waiting for the light to turn green.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (4 children)

According to the Gell-Mann amnesia effect, the same people also write about politics, environment and society.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 8 months ago (5 children)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 8 months ago

I'd be more impressed if they didn't.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 months ago

Wait until they see the speaker that makes noise at the speed of sound.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Honestly I'd be more impressed by the Star Wars kind that go about thirty miles an hour.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Wake me up when I can buy a lightsaber.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

This picture got so much compression artifacts just in 3 days lol.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Has Science Really Gone Too Far Even as Decided to Use Even Go Want to do Look More Like?

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Have you not seen those Blaster from the galaxy far far away that fire laser half the speed of sound?

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Easy there, that’s quite a can of worms you’re tipping over.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago

I can run at the speed of running, where is my headline?

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