Being “invisible” to others is an age-old idea, featuring occasionaly in fiction novels and movies. However, is this just an idle dream? Is invisibility really a possibility? Here, in this post, I shall introduce three (3!!) reasonably logical methods to establish invisibility. First, I will address the phenomenal term I have coined in sito, and explain what it means.
Spinvisibility – Invisibility induced due to spinning motion
I assume that we all have one fan (at least) in our homes. Using this technological marvel, you can experience the concept of spinvisibility first hand. Turn the fan on. Can you see the blades? Yes. Can you distinctly see the blades? No (Unless your fan is too slow or the number of blades is too less).
Your fan cannot really be called “translucent”, yet that is what it seems to be. Note, you can still see a distinct blade occasionally appear, more so if you follow the fan’s movements. Consider a hypothetical situation where I am allowed to raise the angular velocity of the fan indefinitely. A point will, no doubt, arrive when you cannot see the fan at all, except the central hub.
According to me, in such a situation, your fan is “spinvisible”. I have chosen circular motion because it does not involve dynamic displacement and can be observed in a body at (overall) rest. This might have some applications if the hub is made very small so that it is not seen, and the body of the object is entirely made up of rotating components.
EDIT: Please read my comments on this post, for some extra stuff.
Invisibilty through bypass
This method was recently published in a leading newspaper. It involves the re-routing of light from a source, around the object to be made invisible, before it reaches the observers eye.
This method would require light to somehow ’slip’ around the boundaries of an object, and then resume linear movement.
A serious hole in this theory is that it does not take diffraction into account, but the theory is being worked upon (by actual scientists who choose to ignore spinvisibility).
Invisibility through alternate camera-projection set up
In this ingenious method, though with limited applicability, a screen may be set up between the observer and the object, and a camera be placed between the object and the source (pointing to wards the source). The screen shows an image as captured by the camera, preferably video.
Assuming that the edges of the display (TV, screen) are extremely thin, or the entire front face is covered by the screen itself (no buttons), the observer shall not be able to see the object, which means the object shall technically be invisible.
This method is the least feasible of all three, since by a mere shifting of the observer’s head, the illusion can be nullified.
Comment
I request you to comment on my theories, I’d like to know what you feel about this.
ummm…about the spinvisibility thing….
assuming you mean invisible as in invisible to others, sure , its possible to be invisible if you’re spinning that fast…( quite improbable, really), but lets say even if you ARE able to do that, there’s no way you’ll be able to remotely see anything around you.
and walking while spinning…far off possibility.
the theory’s plausible, yeah.
practical…no.
First off, I am not speaking about the invisibility of people. And it is impossible for a man to be invisible in that way. The body has to be discontinuous, if your fan happens to be a flat disk, it will neither appear translucent nor transparent even at the speed of sound.
Secondly, I feel the theory is quite practical if used in defence (for example). How about 2/3rds of a large spinning fan with razor sharp blades is hidden from you, and the rest 1/3rd is spinvisible? The enemy will try to walk through it and get cut up in a hundred pieces :D
lol….that’s an idea.
you see the problem is that your eye holds an image for 1/16th of a second. The common misgiving is that the image sticks in your eye for that much time after which it seeks a new image whereas in actuality, new images appear all the damn time (per millisecond actually – or faster) and each one superimposes. A single image then, individually lasts for 1/16th of a second.
You say you can use spinvisibilty to “hide” weapons with massive blades. But aren’t you ignoring the factor of air? You might not be able to see it but you sure as hell will feel the air current and quite probably hear it too (unless you propose we use this in space wars.. star trek style).
one more theory for you: Metamaterials. Definitely not been perfected, and if it ever is it’s immediate use will probably not for invisibility purposes.
You can’t feel the air because the blades are not curved. A flat blade does not propel air. As for noise, it can be masked using other noise or just not masked.
metamaterials are cool.
Damn. Spoke before thinking.