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How The Latest in High Tech Works
Popular Science has up a feature looking at "how it works", examining the innards of several new technology-based innovations. We've talked about the Sayaka endoscope in a pill, but did you know it captures images in 360 degrees? We've discussed the adorable little Pleo dino-bot, but did you know how adaptive it is to stimuli? And what about the tank-burning laser that can be fired from an airplane? Well, we haven't discussed that but I'm at a loss as to explain why. "A kind of reverse telescope called the beam expander inside a retractable, swiveling pod called the turret widens the beam to 20 inches and aims it. The laser's computer determines the distance to the target and adjusts the beam so it condenses into a focused point at just the right spot. Tracking computers help make microscopic adjustments to compensate for both the airplane's and the target's movement. A burst of a few seconds' duration will burn a several-inch-wide hole in whatever it hits."
I know of a worthwhile house to target, if someone can come up with enough popcorn.
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
Thank god, cause I'd much rather be dead than blind.
Man, if I had some popcorn for everytime some nutty defense department flunky suggested an airborne laser cannon, I would... have a whole lot of popcorn. I mean, a lot. I couldn't even fit it all in my house. It would be a lot.