CISSARE, pronouunced "sizz-ARE"- a play on the word "scissor"- stands for "Constructively Interfering Spherical Section Array Radiation Emitter." What does that mean?
First, we need to remind ourselves about an important property of waves. When two waves intersect so that their peaks coincide, the amplitude of the waves are added together. Observe water waves bouncing off a solid wall at the edge of the water. Sometimes, the reflected wave peak intersects with an incoming wave peak. The result is an extra-tall wave. Sometimes the incoming and outgoing waves intersect peak to trough- making for a momentarily flat place in the water. Read more here.
The same principle applies to electromagnetic radiation. In our initial thought experiment, we'll be discussing microwaves- "light" with peak-to-peak wavelengths of between 1 and 10 cm.
Imagine that you have two directional microwave emitters focused on a single point. If they are either exactly the same distance away from the target, or if their distances vary by some multiple of the wavelength; if they are operating perfectly in synch; and if they are operating on the exact same frequency, they will create a wave point twice the amplitude of the native power of either emitter.
Now, what happens if we add more emitters to the array? In fact, let's skip all the intermediary steps and go straight to the maximum scenario: a spherical array of directional emitters, all pointing inward, all focused on a single point, all in synch to create a point of constructive interference. The total energy at the center point would be derived by adding the energy of each of the emitters.
What we end up with is a point-knife. A device that can vaporize the interior of an object without damaging it's exterior. It could be used for surgery (in fact, in principle, this is how some cancer treatments work already). It could be used as a weapon. Here's how it would work. Imagine that you're CISSARE is set up in another building and you're attempting to destroy a soft object. You set up a sensor in the same room as the object you wish to vaporize. You focus your CISSARE on the surface of the object, so that you can get feedback- a heat reading, for instance- and then- once the point is tuned to maximum energy- you move it into the interior of the object.
You could think of it as a beam weapon without a beam.
Q. Why microwaves? Why not x-rays?
A. Tuning x-rays would require an incredible amount of control and would only be usable over an extremely short distance. Microwaves, which exist as useful energy levels, and to which much of the world is transparent, are much easier to tune.
Q. Why not radio waves?
A. Radio waves would be even easier to tune, but would generate relatively little useful energy.
Q. Why do you call this "holographic" in the title of this blog?
A. Holograms are created by using intersecting beams of light (lasers) which, because of the interference, are able to change the medium. An entire 3D image can be through the intersection of two points-of-view. Instead of creating a three-dimensional visual image, a CISSARE creates a three-dimensional projection of energy.
Q. What you've described allows you to project onto, or even into, an object- to "write." Can a CISSARE be used to "read"?
A. Possibly, in principle. By operating at low enough energy levels to avoid damaging the material, and by recording the energetic feedback signature emanating from the point of intersection, you could probe the interior of an object by scanning, point by point, line by line, plane by plane. The only problem is that you would have to know about the whole object before you'd know how any part of the object would affect the permissivity of the probe beams. A CISSARE could be used progressively- gradually solving for a more and more accurate picture over multiple scans. Or, CISSARE's might be useful as way of testing industrial hardware for variations from the intended design. In either case, enormous amounts of computing power would be required.
Q. Why do you describe a CISSARE as a weapon?
A. Anything that could be used to damage the interior of something without leaving any exterior sign of intrusion has potential as a devastating weapon. It would allow one government to quietly cook some internal organ of a visiting head of state without anyone being the wiser. That head of state might then die, days or weeks later, without anyone being able to prove that it was an assassination. Or, imagine that your CISSARE is on several trucks. You park them around the location of a hostage situation. You then send in a small robot to locate the bad guys. You Once they're all located, you run a quick program that causes a non-fatal burst of heat to appear at the base of each suspect's brain. No worries about collateral damage from stray bullets.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Cut Your Travel Time in Half
There are some aspects of the universe that are exceedingly difficult to imagine properly. For instance, if you were in a spaceship traveling at half the speed of light, and you were to measure the speed of the light you shot out ahead of you, you'd find that it was traveling exactly the speed of light both from your standpoint, and from the standpoint of the stationary observer. This is true for the spacecraft traveling at 99% of the speed of light as well. Special relativity- Einstein's description of the universe in which there are NO special, or privileged reference frames (one's where light doesn't go the speed of light), leaves us with the understanding that in order for this to be the case- in order for light to always travel light speed- other things we consider to be constant get warped and squished and stretched. The rate of the passage of time. The physical dimensions of objects. Mass. Even the very concept of simultaneity.
While it's difficult to imagine, it's not difficult to calculate.
The factor, called gamma, by which we divide the passage of time for the moving reference frame, or multiply for the rest frame, is a simple calculation.
gamma = 1 / ( square root of ( 1 - ( v^2 / c^2 ))
v is velocity expressed as a decimal of the speed of light, c. C, is 1. 1 squared is still 1. So you can disregard that part of the equation. So...
gamma = 1 / square root of (1 - v^2)
And now for some examples:
v/c___________GAMMA__________percent relative to rest frame
0.0___________1________________100%
0.00001_______1.00000000005_____99.99999999995%
0.0001________1.000000005_______99.999999995%
0.001_________1.0000005_________99.9999995%
0.01__________1.00005___________99.99995%
0.1___________1.005_____________99.49874%
0.2___________1.021_____________97.979736%
0.25__________1.033_____________96.82458%
0.3___________1.048_____________95.39392%
0.33333_______1.061_____________94.28090%
0.4___________1.091_____________91.65151%
0.41660_______1.1_______________90.90909%
0.5___________1.155_____________86.60254%
0.55277_______1.2_______________83.33333%
0.6___________1.25______________80%
0.63897_______1.3_______________76.92308%
0.66666_______1.342_____________74.53556%
0.69985_______1.4_______________71.42857%
0.7___________1.40028___________71.41428%
0.74535_______1.5_______________66.66666%
0.75__________1.512_____________66.14378%
0.78062_______1.6_______________62.5%
0.8___________1.666_____________60%
0.80869_______1.7_______________58.82353%
0.83148_______1.8_______________55.55556%
0.85029_______1.9_______________52.63158%
0.8660254038__2________________50%
0.9___________2.294_____________43.58899%
0.91__________2.412_____________41.46082%
0.91652_______2.5_______________40%
0.92__________2.552_____________39.19184%
0.93__________2.721_____________36.75595%
0.94__________2.931_____________34.11744%
0.94281_______3________________33.33333%
0.95__________3.203_____________31.22499%
0.96__________3.571_____________28%
0.96825_______4________________25%
0.97__________4.113_____________24.31049%
0.97980_______5________________20%
0.98__________5.025_____________19.89975%
0.98601_______6________________16.66667%
0.98974_______7________________14.28571%
0.99__________7.089_____________14.10674% (two nines of c)
0.9949874371__10_______________10%
0.999_________22.366____________4.47101% (three nines of c)
0.9999________70.712____________1.41418% (four nines of c)
0.9999499987__100______________1%
0.99999_______223.607___________0.44721% (five nines of c)
0.999999______707.107___________0.14142% (six nines of c)
0.9999994999__1000_____________0.1%
0.9999999_____2236.068__________0.04472% (seven nines of c)
0.99999999____7071.068__________0.01414% (eight nines of c)
0.999999999___22360.680_________0.00447% (nine nines of c)
0.9999999999__70710.678_________0.00141% (ten nines of c)
1.0000000000__(infinite)__________0%
Notice anything interesting happening at high c? Makes it easy to remember, doesn't it?
Let's put gamma to work in some simple operations.
Q. A ship with a 1 gram rest weight is traveling at ten nines of the speed of light. How much does it weigh?
A. 1g x 70710.678 = 70.7kg.
Q. A neutrino with negligible mass is moving exactly the speed of light. How much does it weigh?
A. (almost nothing) x (infinity) = infinite weight. In other words, neutrinos *don't* quite make light speed. Light, which can only travel at light speed, is completely massless.
Q. A one-kilometer long ship is traveling at 0.8c. How long is it when viewed from the rest frame?
A. 1000m x 0.6 = 600m.
Q. A starship is traveling at four nines of the speed of light for ten years according to the rest frame. How many years ass on board the ship?
A. 10 x 0.014142 = 0.14142 years or 51.65 days.
Q. A ship is traveling at 96% of the speed of light for ten years of shipboard time. How many years pass on earth?
A. 1 / 0.28 x 10 = 35.71 years.
Q. At what speed does relativistic time dilation cause shipboard travel time to be exactly half that of the rest frame observer?
A. To find the answer, we set gamma equal to 2 and solve for v.
2 = 1 / square root of ( 1 - v^2)
Divide both sides by (square root of ( 1 - v^2)
Reset.
Divide both sides by two.
Reset. Get 0.5 = square root of ( 1 - v^2)
Square both sides.
Reset. Get 0.25 = 1 - v^2
Subtract 1 from both sides.
Reset. Get -0.75 = -v^2
Take square root of both sides.
Assume the answer we desire is positive.
Get 0.8660254038 c.
v = square root of [ - {(1/gamma)^2 - 1} ]
That's how fast you'd have to travel to cut your travel time in half.
While it's difficult to imagine, it's not difficult to calculate.
The factor, called gamma, by which we divide the passage of time for the moving reference frame, or multiply for the rest frame, is a simple calculation.
gamma = 1 / ( square root of ( 1 - ( v^2 / c^2 ))
v is velocity expressed as a decimal of the speed of light, c. C, is 1. 1 squared is still 1. So you can disregard that part of the equation. So...
gamma = 1 / square root of (1 - v^2)
And now for some examples:
v/c___________GAMMA__________percent relative to rest frame
0.0___________1________________100%
0.00001_______1.00000000005_____99.99999999995%
0.0001________1.000000005_______99.999999995%
0.001_________1.0000005_________99.9999995%
0.01__________1.00005___________99.99995%
0.1___________1.005_____________99.49874%
0.2___________1.021_____________97.979736%
0.25__________1.033_____________96.82458%
0.3___________1.048_____________95.39392%
0.33333_______1.061_____________94.28090%
0.4___________1.091_____________91.65151%
0.41660_______1.1_______________90.90909%
0.5___________1.155_____________86.60254%
0.55277_______1.2_______________83.33333%
0.6___________1.25______________80%
0.63897_______1.3_______________76.92308%
0.66666_______1.342_____________74.53556%
0.69985_______1.4_______________71.42857%
0.7___________1.40028___________71.41428%
0.74535_______1.5_______________66.66666%
0.75__________1.512_____________66.14378%
0.78062_______1.6_______________62.5%
0.8___________1.666_____________60%
0.80869_______1.7_______________58.82353%
0.83148_______1.8_______________55.55556%
0.85029_______1.9_______________52.63158%
0.8660254038__2________________50%
0.9___________2.294_____________43.58899%
0.91__________2.412_____________41.46082%
0.91652_______2.5_______________40%
0.92__________2.552_____________39.19184%
0.93__________2.721_____________36.75595%
0.94__________2.931_____________34.11744%
0.94281_______3________________33.33333%
0.95__________3.203_____________31.22499%
0.96__________3.571_____________28%
0.96825_______4________________25%
0.97__________4.113_____________24.31049%
0.97980_______5________________20%
0.98__________5.025_____________19.89975%
0.98601_______6________________16.66667%
0.98974_______7________________14.28571%
0.99__________7.089_____________14.10674% (two nines of c)
0.9949874371__10_______________10%
0.999_________22.366____________4.47101% (three nines of c)
0.9999________70.712____________1.41418% (four nines of c)
0.9999499987__100______________1%
0.99999_______223.607___________0.44721% (five nines of c)
0.999999______707.107___________0.14142% (six nines of c)
0.9999994999__1000_____________0.1%
0.9999999_____2236.068__________0.04472% (seven nines of c)
0.99999999____7071.068__________0.01414% (eight nines of c)
0.999999999___22360.680_________0.00447% (nine nines of c)
0.9999999999__70710.678_________0.00141% (ten nines of c)
1.0000000000__(infinite)__________0%
Notice anything interesting happening at high c? Makes it easy to remember, doesn't it?
Let's put gamma to work in some simple operations.
Q. A ship with a 1 gram rest weight is traveling at ten nines of the speed of light. How much does it weigh?
A. 1g x 70710.678 = 70.7kg.
Q. A neutrino with negligible mass is moving exactly the speed of light. How much does it weigh?
A. (almost nothing) x (infinity) = infinite weight. In other words, neutrinos *don't* quite make light speed. Light, which can only travel at light speed, is completely massless.
Q. A one-kilometer long ship is traveling at 0.8c. How long is it when viewed from the rest frame?
A. 1000m x 0.6 = 600m.
Q. A starship is traveling at four nines of the speed of light for ten years according to the rest frame. How many years ass on board the ship?
A. 10 x 0.014142 = 0.14142 years or 51.65 days.
Q. A ship is traveling at 96% of the speed of light for ten years of shipboard time. How many years pass on earth?
A. 1 / 0.28 x 10 = 35.71 years.
Q. At what speed does relativistic time dilation cause shipboard travel time to be exactly half that of the rest frame observer?
A. To find the answer, we set gamma equal to 2 and solve for v.
2 = 1 / square root of ( 1 - v^2)
Divide both sides by (square root of ( 1 - v^2)
Reset.
Divide both sides by two.
Reset. Get 0.5 = square root of ( 1 - v^2)
Square both sides.
Reset. Get 0.25 = 1 - v^2
Subtract 1 from both sides.
Reset. Get -0.75 = -v^2
Take square root of both sides.
Assume the answer we desire is positive.
Get 0.8660254038 c.
v = square root of [ - {(1/gamma)^2 - 1} ]
That's how fast you'd have to travel to cut your travel time in half.
Monday, September 6, 2010
All of Us are Drill Sergeants
Let's say that every time you see someone with a LiveStrong bracelet, that you can demand that they do 20 push-ups. Like a drill sergeant. And every time you make this demand, you are required to do the same. How long would it take for people to catch on?
I'm talking about demanding exercise, in public, without fore-warning, from strangers.
Q. Would people cooperate?
A. Not all of them, but those that do would do so because they appreciate the opportunity to break the cultural taboo against exercising in public.
Q. Would it catch on?
A. If everyone that was accosted and commanded to do push-ups had it explained to them, then a number of them would likely take up the practice. It would appeal to a person's competitive nature- an attribute likely present in those that wear LiveStrong bracelets.
Q. Would it be worth it?
A. Even if it only barely caught on in a single small town in the middle of nowhere, those that participated would benefit from the increase in activity. By breaking the taboo against exercising in public, the benefits might be unlimited.
I'm talking about demanding exercise, in public, without fore-warning, from strangers.
Q. Would people cooperate?
A. Not all of them, but those that do would do so because they appreciate the opportunity to break the cultural taboo against exercising in public.
Q. Would it catch on?
A. If everyone that was accosted and commanded to do push-ups had it explained to them, then a number of them would likely take up the practice. It would appeal to a person's competitive nature- an attribute likely present in those that wear LiveStrong bracelets.
Q. Would it be worth it?
A. Even if it only barely caught on in a single small town in the middle of nowhere, those that participated would benefit from the increase in activity. By breaking the taboo against exercising in public, the benefits might be unlimited.
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