Tractor beams, IRL
March 10, 2011 at 5:44 pm
(This post was last modified: March 10, 2011 at 5:45 pm by lilphil1989.)
Tractor beams can exist theoretically!
arxiv link
The basic principle is to shine a beam at some angle to the object you want to pull, and choose a form for the beam such that it is possible to maximise scattering from the object in the forward direction.
Unfortunately, it relies on interference effects which only exist for objects that are smaller than the wavelength of the radiation used, so this along with the fact that absorption as opposed to scattering tends to become dominant for large objects, scaling this up to move macroscopic objects doesn't really seem feasible
.
But the fact that this exists, even if it is just in principle and for microscopic objects, is pretty awesome!
arxiv link
The basic principle is to shine a beam at some angle to the object you want to pull, and choose a form for the beam such that it is possible to maximise scattering from the object in the forward direction.
Unfortunately, it relies on interference effects which only exist for objects that are smaller than the wavelength of the radiation used, so this along with the fact that absorption as opposed to scattering tends to become dominant for large objects, scaling this up to move macroscopic objects doesn't really seem feasible
.But the fact that this exists, even if it is just in principle and for microscopic objects, is pretty awesome!
Galileo was a man of science oppressed by the irrational and superstitious. Today, he is used by the irrational and superstitious who claim they are being oppressed by science - Mark Crislip
