Physics of the Impossible Book Summary, by Michio Kaku
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Video Summaries of Physics of the Impossible
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Many of today’s technologies were once only the fantastical inventions of science fiction. For example, Jules Verne predicted many things that we take for granted in our world, such as fax machines and even a worldwide communications network. However, his contemporaries didn’t believe him because they thought these ideas were impossible.
Even if you’re watching science fiction movies that aren’t all that old, you may find some technologies depicted to be crude. For example, computers are now smaller and more efficient than they were in the past. We also have devices like smartphones today which weren’t around before. Science has surpassed yesterday’s science fiction in some ways because of these new technologies.
We can also look at technologies that seem impossible today, but will be real in the future. For example, you’ll learn about how we won’t have to rely on psychics for mind reading and whether it’s worth saving money for a handheld laser gun. You’ll also find out what it takes to travel faster than light.
Big Idea #1: There’s real science behind the ideas of force fields and invisibility cloaks.
Remember the force fields used in Star Trek? They protected spaceships from enemy fire and rockets. That’s fantasy, right? Actually, scientists have been working on energy barriers for years.
As we know, many objects can exert an influence over other objects in their vicinity without direct contact with them. For instance, a magnet attracts or repels things that lie within a certain field around it. In the nineteenth century, a British scientist named Michael Faraday came up with the concept of force fields, invisible areas or lines of force that envelop a magnet. Later, the concept expanded to include other forces, such as the earth’s gravitational field.
Scientists have discovered a way to create force fields that protect objects from heat and explosions. This could lead to the creation of shields that deflect rockets or projectiles. Scientists are able to do this by making plasma, which is an electrically charged gas, and then molding it with magnetic and electrical fields. They can also reinforce these shields with carbon nanotubes: tiny cylinders made of thin sheets of rolled up carbon atoms. These would be stronger than steel, so they could block attacks from rockets or bullets.
The TED video above offers more details about how scientists might accomplish this incredible feat.
But what if you wanted to make someone invisible instead? This isn’t impossible either.
Our ability to see depends on the light reflected off of objects. If something doesn’t reflect much light, we can’t see it. This is how things like fog and clouds become invisible. However, there’s another way that things can become invisible: using metamaterials. These are composite materials with particles that deflect light as opposed to reflect them. Any object enveloped in such a material becomes virtually invisible.
Big Idea #2: Phasers and death stars might come to exist outside the world of Star Wars.
Since the time of Archimedes, we’ve been fascinated by lasers and light rays. Star Wars movies have made us think about what it would be like to use a handheld phaser gun or harness the planet-destroying force of a Death Star. However, is it realistic to believe that such futuristic devices could ever exist?
Physics of the Impossible Book Summary, by Michio Kaku
