Agloco
09-03-2011, 01:52 PM
http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences-features/58245-team-produces-weird-optical-phenomena-and-rewrites-the-rules-of-refr
Researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have induced light rays to behave in a way that defies the laws of reflection and refraction, while producing some weird fun-house images on the way.
This is truly neat stuff. However........I should point out that this article sensationalizes things a bit by saying:
The discovery has meant a rewriting of the rule books for the centuries-old mathematical laws that predict the path of a ray of light bouncing off a surface or traveling from one medium into another.
Um no......
The laws still apply. They've simply come up with a unique way to perturb the system. There will necessarily be a correction factor which needs to be applied to Snells Law.
The potential applcations are very intriguing though. For instance, fiberoptics operate on the principle of total internal reflection. With the nanomaterials used by this group to coat the surfaces of media, that angle is subject to change. New methods of information transfer or storage could pop up as a result.
Researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have induced light rays to behave in a way that defies the laws of reflection and refraction, while producing some weird fun-house images on the way.
This is truly neat stuff. However........I should point out that this article sensationalizes things a bit by saying:
The discovery has meant a rewriting of the rule books for the centuries-old mathematical laws that predict the path of a ray of light bouncing off a surface or traveling from one medium into another.
Um no......
The laws still apply. They've simply come up with a unique way to perturb the system. There will necessarily be a correction factor which needs to be applied to Snells Law.
The potential applcations are very intriguing though. For instance, fiberoptics operate on the principle of total internal reflection. With the nanomaterials used by this group to coat the surfaces of media, that angle is subject to change. New methods of information transfer or storage could pop up as a result.