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Fatal Flaw Discovered In Invisibility Cloaks
KentuckyFC writes "Carpet cloaks took the world by storm last year because they were the first devices to hide objects at optical frequencies. The idea is that a thin layer of dielectric material placed on a surface can make light look as if it is reflecting off the original surface. In other words, the layer is invisible and anything embedded within it is invisible too. This trick is like hiding something under a carpet, hence the name. Carpet cloaks are relatively easy to make because the dielectric material does not need to be specially constructed to steer light in special ways; physicists call this an isotropic material. Now a group at MIT has shown that isotropic carpet cloaks have a fatal flaw. When viewed at an angle, the carpets don't hide objects at all. Instead, they simply shift their position by about the same distance as they are high. So when viewed from an angle of 45 degrees, an object 0.2 units high is shifted to one side by a distance of 0.15 units, says the team. That's a serious limitation for carpet cloaks."
So what they're saying is it's more of a Cloak of Displacement? While less stealthy, I think that's actually better odds of avoiding the hit than the penalty for attacking an invisible opponent.
I'm sure a carpet cloak like this would have military applications, and in a desert environment like the Middle East, people aren't going to notice you unless they're close to you.
A sniper on a ridge covered with one of these babies is still going to do the job.
When they were creating these cloaks, they didn't think to look at it from other angles than just straight on? Seriously? That's the equivalent of "it works on my machine."
I can't see how they could work.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I demand more pictures of invisibility cloaks in articles about invisibility cloaks. Theory be damned.
Please stop pluralizing words with an apostrophe. That is not what it is there for.
They should be working on a "Somebody Else's Problem" field. I hear that this is much easier than trying to much around with physics.
No, the fatal flaw is that a cloaked object moving at warp speed emits a slight subspace variance. Adversaries performing an antiproton scan may also be a problem.
What if we modify the phase variance?
Depends on the size of the missile...
What if we modify the phase variance?
yeah, as long as we randomly modulate the shield frequencies, reverse the polarity of the heisenberg compensators, and amplify the transporter buffers... we should be good to go. Earl Grey tea never tasted so good.
Well, cheer up. It might still mean that the Romulan's weapons hit some nearby console when they think they're targeting the warp core. Of course, it would be better if they didn't hit anything at all, but I'm affraid that the law that for each hit a console must explode in a shower of sparks and send some ensign flying across the room is more immutable than the laws of refraction ;)
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Unfortunately, every member of the search team is slacking off, assuming someone else is looking for it.
Nah, that can easily be defeated by a tachyon burst, particularly if you invert the polarity of the shield harmonics.
What if we modify the phase variance?
yeah, as long as we randomly modulate the shield frequencies, reverse the polarity of the heisenberg compensators, and amplify the transporter buffers... we should be good to go. Earl Grey tea never tasted so good.
Now see here... If the polarity of anything is to be reversed, then clearly we should start with the neutron flow...
Bow-ties are cool.
This solution will never work.
No one has even suggested routing extra power to the main deflector array yet.
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You mean in real life, as opposed to internet dick waving arguments? That depends.
Depends on the size and type of warhead, the geology of the ground, the angle of the impact of the missile and the alignment of the tank relative to the strike.
A "standard" 1000lbs conventional cruise missile warhead is a fragmentation/blast effect weapon. Against a 60-ton MBT, anything more than a couple meters away will have minimal effects on the crew, assuming they're buttoned up. Shaken and dinged up, maybe.
OTOH, the tank itself may have been damaged and/or lost mobility but it's a far cry from having what's essentially a 1000 lbs land directly on the vehicle, in which case the tank is most assuredly dead and the crew does not survive.
In terms of the very basic science, what about the explosion is the dangerous bit? Fragmentation and the pressure wave, plus possible secondary fragmentation if you're inside a vehicle. Tank armor is designed to protect against these threats, which is why hardware designed to kill tanks are specialized to either penetrate armor or strike where there is next to no armor (the top).
Directly ON the tank, game's over. Next to the tank, now you're playing against the tank's strength, which is why I responded to badboy_2002 and interval1066 the way I did. A tank sittng right next to where the cruise missile hit is decidedly NOT about the same thing as a direct hit.
I can't see how they could work.
This is only about 'carpet cloaks', not invisibility cloaks in general. The problem is that a carpet cloak is the optical analogue of simply putting a display screen in front of the object and a video camera behind the object. In other words, of course it doesn't bloody work from the side, you morons. A general invisibility cloak is still possible, but may require phased array optics or other exotic active techniques.
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