An invisibility cloak isn’t necessarily just the stuff of Harry Potter stories. In last week’s Science magazine (where Robert works), theoretical physicists explain how to make invisible cloaks and whatnot — theoretically, at least. You can learn more about invisibility on Professor Ulf Leonhardt’s home page or his page on invisibility.
So, what would you do if you were invisible?
If I were invisble I would
Isn’t that a cool (invisible)idea?
Actually, I would sneak on to airplanes and get free trips to anywhere in the world.
i dont need one – i can already turn incisible wnvr i want to
*invisible
I would pinch my ugly sub’s butt.
If I were invisible, I would… I don’t know. Probably not do anything..
If I were invisible…. oh wait, I am already! Never mind.
Invisibility is useful. Although as emogrl said, there are already ways of being invisible. For example, right now i’m supposed to be in gym. Yet nobody notices because this time of the class is absolute chaos. QED, if i used that right your majesty? Ah well.
i would sneak around. #2 that sounds pretty good actually. avoiding war zones and bird flu of course
I would sneak on to airplanes, go to everywhere in the world, than contribute an anonymous record of my journeys which would then become a bestseller and change the face of Western civilization forever.
8-Ebeth, art thou addressing us? I have to say that you used the phrase impeccably. Quod erat demonstratum. Ave Ebeth!
I went to that page on invisibiltiy and tried to read it. I sounded pretty interesting but most of just flew over my head….I don’t quite understand all those scienitific laws and prinicibles…
Duuuuuuuude, I read about that on
[Link deleted — Rosanne].
Like, a day or two ago. Found the link on a HP site…weird, eh? Fun, anyway!!!
11- I agree. it was interesting, but confusing. Muse has run an article on both optical illusions and that jacket he was talking about, the one that projects what is behind you infront of you. maybe Robert could tell us what he is saying.
It’s different from the jacket Muse showed on the back page way back when. The Economist did a good job of describing what’s going on. Here’s an excerpt:
“Light is an electromagnetic wave, with a longer wavelength than x-rays and ultraviolet, and a shorter wavelength than infra-red, microwaves and radio waves. All these electromagnetic waves are governed by four mathematical expressions established almost 150 years ago by James Clerk Maxwell…
“The team…used the equations to devise a way to cloak an object with a material that would deflect the rays that would have struck it, guide them around it and return them to their original trajectory.”
The result, in theory: perfect invisibility.
Note, however, that it’s still all just math. The scientists have shown what sorts of properties a cloak of invisibility would have to have, but actually making such a material could take decades. And if such cloaks ever do exist, they’ll have a big disadvantage: if you’re inside one, you won’t be able to see out. So much for spying.
Hey, where did my posts go? Have they turned invisible to? Or are they just not worthy enough for this thread? I think I’m going to cry…*snibble*
I would
1. Shread peoples schoolwork
2. Shread Library books that I don’t like
3. Kiss the guy I like
4. Kiss the other guy I like
Yep, that about it.
In fact, I thought there were different comments on the thread I just left…*is weirded out* Acctually, I’m sure it had different comments! And I don’t see them anywhere! Mayhaps they’re in the other invisible thread, the one that shows up in the Most Recent Posts Colum towards the top…You can’t click on that one. This is all to much for me right now, see you all later! *leaves the thread, confuzzled*
Ahhhhhh there are two threads! I made it back to the other one… this is confuzzling…*holds head*
16- being the spelling geek that I am, it is spelled “shred”.
I would definetly kiss the boy that I like. Or I would just stare at him without him knowing that I’m doing it… I can’t say who it is, because my teacher may be lurking.
I think I’d wreak havoc in any given public place….like that one scene from PoA [the movie] when Harry knocked down that chorus line. Then I’d destroy the classrooms of a few teachers I don’t like….muhahhahahahaha….Then…I dunno..loiter…
Wasn’t there an article in Muse about that a while ago? that’s so cool though
oh, #5, wreak havoc at the local mall construction zone. Dangerous, I know, but fun!
if i were invisible i’d sneak around the house all day and freak out my family. but i’d have to be videotaping it all. then i would… go somewhere where i’m not supposed to go… (sneak into a movie theater and watch RHPS! lol)
i would… run ’round the school and whisper things in my enemies ears all day and freak them out!
invisibility..cool!
I don’t know what I would do.
I’ll post a list later,,,
I would and paint the incredibly unbelievably hideously horridly completely ultimately amzingliy undoubtably uglyuglyuglyuglyUGLY new development up the road multi colors. It wouldnt make it any less ugly, but it would make it interesting.
NO, KOKO DOES NOT PWN ALL!
Rosanne! how dare you!
ahaha, invisibility….always a great chance to sneak up on your sister and put your fingers in that really ticklish spot on her neck…or, if you wish something more productive, laying on the ground in a frequently travelled area and making people fall over. but aside from all pranks, i dont kno what i would do if i was invisible. people hardly pay attention to anyone else anyway, so that wouldnt make a huge difference. maybe i’d walk around with no clothes on when i got really hot. i dunnoo…
*lurks blindly*
Em! Would you believe me if I said,”Koko made me do it”?
Koko DOES pwn all! So meh!
Yea, I’d believe you, Rosanne. It seems like people in America spend all their time TRYING to get noticed, like on reality shows and whatnot. Why would people want to be invisible?
I would Spy on people
go around like normal
uhhh I don’t know
Sneak into the White House and put dissolvable tablets into the drinks of George and his pals, that would force them to be honest for just one day.
I think they should remake Liar Liar with George W. Bush.
34- Ooooooor, sneak in the White House and re-decorate it. Addams family style.
If I were invisible, nobody and nothing would be safe. Ah ha ha ha!
Yeah, if I could do one thing, mall Counstruction Havoc
First, I would drive the big machines ino the concree
Secdondly, I would tear down all the stuff tear down-able
Thirdly, I would run around sceaming ‘I AM A GHOOOOST! IF YOU RENOVATE THE MALL, I WILL HAUNT YOU FOREVER!”
hey, keep politics to the hot-topics thread. remember why MG quit? i for one want her to come back some day and its not gunna happen if we forget the lessons that she tried to teach us. (i.e. be nice to people with different views)
i happen to aggree with you, ceder but lets keep that to the hot-topics thread.
If I wuz invisible I would sit in on my old Irish step dance class that I quit without having to put up with torment from The Girl That I Hate And Will Not Be Named.
Then I would get up in the sound booth of my friends church and fiddle with it
and then I guess I would sit in the middle of a hallway and watch people trip over seemingly nothing.
hm… would you steal all harry potter books? i am re-reading the first on eby the way!
people like the real invisble thread better
altho it would be cool if i could be invisible… or at least when i want to be
I read about scientists working on an inivisibility cloak on a news article on yahoo. My dad saw it and emailed it too me at home ’cause I’m a Harry Potter freak. Here’s the address for all you. GAPA, please don’t delete this. I’m not making it into a link (or least ways, not intentionally) and I don’t really think there’s anything bad on it, it’s just a yahoo news article. Less suggestive probably then some of the things on potter puppet pals, and you let people make a link for that.
Here it is:
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060526/ap_on_sc/invisibility_cloak
oopsies, I guess it is a link. I suppose I ought to’ve figured since I copie it from a word document that automatically hyperlinks all web adresses that it would copy linked, but I didn’t since italics and bold don’t copy. I didn’t turn it green either. GAPA, if you won’t accept it as a link as it did on its own, then unlink it (if you have that power) and please leave it. Please?
What would be really cool to do if you were invisible and could see out of the inivisbility cloak:
Put on the cloak, get in a car (assuming you can drive, and have a drivers license), and drive around. It is guaranteed to freak people out when they see a seemingly driverless car on the highway. Freak out the cops too.
Somehow, I doubt that invisibility cloaks, if made, would be available for the public, except, perhaps, with extensive background checks. I mean, just think of all the things a terrorist could do with it. Sneak onto an airplane with a bomb, sneak into just about anywhere with a bomb, perchance rob a bank without too much difficulty (my dad says he doesn’t think motion detectors would be able to detect you if you were wearing one of those cloaks talked about ont he yahoo news page (presumably the same as the ones in the science magazine Robert was talking about)), and perchance not quite as bad, if it was a guy, sneak into the girls showers at a pool, or anywhere else, and watch them. It would make things altogether much to easy for terrorists.
I want one though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Michelle,
Yes, that’s the paper that we published in Science.
Thank you GAPA!!!!!!!!!! I appreciate it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
you can’t see me
That’s wicked cool. I had to read it a few times thought.
I’ve always liked things that are impossible but can be talked about. The squre root of -1 for instance.
P.S. website on tetraspace-
[Link deleted. Sorry DY, but it was a link to a personal Website with links to lots of stuff besides the neat tetraspace info. We’re not keen on providing external links, especially to personal Websites — Rosanne]
I already had ludicrous braces. Now the eveeeiiiiil orthodontist has put these giant springs on that make it hard to eat and talk. ow. ow. ow.
I wish they were invisible.
It has other links? Sorry.
Well, if I was invisable, I’d find out how to be visable again if I wanted to. (it’s easier not to get sat on or run over that way).
(49) what would multiply by itself to = -1? I like thinking about things like that . I started when I decided I didn’t like the laws of thermodynamics and decided to degsin a perpetual motion machine. I figured out that a wheel suspended by magnets would spin foreverif it wern’t for fluid friction. So the thing would need a perfect vaccume, which is possible, but only theoreticly. Sorry about the tangent.
45.) a-yup. they would let teh CIA have them all and the FBI. lets go join the CIA!!
and the FBI
if i were invisible i would ditch my stupid finals
54- What about the Kinetic-Molecular Theory? Wouldn’t it imply that everything is in perpetual motion?
Hi! Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m inviiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisible!!!! Yooooouu don’t know whooooo I amm!!
Guess!!
me ghostie. hehehehehehhehehhehhehe.
Peeves, is that you? Now, behave yourself!
ooooooooh, hehehe. You’re not the bloody baron are you?
*throws chalk*
hehehehehehehe!
Would someone please pie this pestiferous poltergeist?
Noooooooooooooo, you can’t pie me because the pie would PASS RIGHT THROUGH ME!!! haheheheha!!
*swoops away to throw chalk at Rosanne*
Away with you, Peeves. We have enough troublemakers!! How did you get on the internet, anyway?
Oh.. sorry, Baron. I’ll……. be getting back to Hogwarts now….
i read the article this whole thread is based on. it sounds to me like no one could see you, but you wouldn’t see anyone else either.
If I was invisible, then I would kiss the guy I like. I’d do it very mysteriously though. I’d make sure he was alone, then start talking to him and make up some story like that I was the ghost of some girl who died in the school years ago and that all I wanted was one kiss before I could rest in everlasting peace.
Actually, that might scar him for life. i don’t want that. Maybe I’d just go up and kiss him. Fewer psychological setbacks.
invisibility would have major advantages.
especially if you were very self centered. ie lots of $
I got this close: | |, to kissing a guy without being invisble one time. He was able to escape.
But, back to mall buisness.
How to halt renovation on the mall:
Step 1: Find invisibility cloak
Step 2: Go to mall
Step 3: Tear down things
Step 4: Drive machines into building
Stepo 5: While doing all this, scream “I am a GHOOOOOOOOOOST”
and there you have it. It seems like step 1 would be hardest, though. Wonder if they sell Invisibilty cloaks on amazon….
Yo! I am da cool ghost rappah! Ya-dumm-badum!!! Break it down!
AAGH!!!!! RAP!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
69, exactly why they probably won’t be available to the public. *sigh*
Hehehe. Yea, you-all, you gotta, you know, be da “invincible” peoples!! Pcchi-kuu!! Yeah, yeah, poom-pa-LUM!!
*dies*
Oh, are you allergic to rap?
i would torment my bio teacher by disabling her computer and not letting our school techie-kid get to it to fix it. she would die, she LOVES her idiodic website.
i would torment my spanish teacher by putting laser neon thingies on the ceiling of her classroom. maybe then she would stop looking up and pay attention to us (not that i would want her to–i read in spanish. we learn nothing; we have to learn it all at home ourselves)
i would torment my band teacher by recording a noisy hallway and playing it loud and nonstop and hide it in her office so she couldn’t turn it off or find it. she would die– she’s always telling us to stop talking in band, but she makes it so boring, we can’t help it.
then yeah like TSYOK said, i would kiss the guys i like. no i wouldnt i dont want to kiss them. i would just steal their planners or something.
then i would sneak into an amusement park we have nearby and ride on all the rides for free and steal dippin dots and try to not be noticeable. i mean, little ice cream dots disappearing into thin air?? yeah, not suspicious at all…not to mention floating safety belts on rides.
but invisible doesnt mean transparent, does it? yes, it does. wait, how would they do THAT???
that site is pretty cool!!
…….uhm………..i looked at the pictures………………..i have………….uuuuh……..homework……
I think I’d hug random people….They’d be scared, but it would be funny.
I would tail people and bust crime rings wide open.
If I were invisible, or could become invisible whenever I wanted, I would be miserable or almost never use my talent. If I were invisible, what would I do but something illegal and/or mean? Occasionally it might be useful, but in general, I’d rather be able to fly.
Bending light is a cool idea, though.
I’d talk to people. People, as in psychiatrists. Can you say, Gothika? Why did they give that title to that movie, though? I still don’t get that part…..Gothika?
I’m gonna try my hand at invisibility…….
I could invisibly beat up the girl who has been giving me a hard time recently because of my guidebook. I’ve always wanted to shove someone into a wall and hit them, but i don’t get much chance for that, being a girl and all. Guys in my school do this on a daily basis. Lucky. They have so many more opportunities to relase stress.
83 Guidebook? Yeah, guys in my school do that a lot too. Especially in P.E. (who came up with that name, anyway?). My friend and I have waaaaay too many inside jokes about it…
Koko really does pwn all, Robert/Rosanne. Am I the first person to catch that? Ingenious, the way you snuck it in the thread name.
Ha! Cool! Now the Blog has a perfect way to send secret messages! Why we need to, I don’t know! But now we can!
85- Yeah, I saw that!
83: You want some help with releasing stress? Start martial arts. If you’re lucky, you’ll get oppurtunities on a weekly basis to beat people up, with limits. Plus, if you hurt them, it’s more their fault than yours. If you do kung fu, like me, then most of it will be about self defense, which also gives you a way to protect yourself from people like that girl.
On the same note, i’m extremely happy! I get my black belt in just a few weeks! Go me! Although it’s taken four long and hard years, I made it! YAY!
88- Congrats!
83-Actually, did you know that displaced aggression (taking stress out on others) is more common in dogs than in humans? I bet you didn’t. It’s connected to the comparative sizes of dogs’ primitive brains. It’s a fairly common phenomenon in baboons.
88-Gratters! I hope a black belt is something good.
booger.
*lurks blindly*
and lets get the bacon delivered before monday, are you new? *pies ALGTBDBM just for good measure*
Yes, *pies ALGTBDBM*
Capricious: If we were invisible we would…
Clever: Be able to keep ourselves from getting pied.
Capricious: Yeah… Right…
Love being invisible!! I adore lurking about and making me parents jump to conclusions on my whereabouts…
No kidding, though! My teachers have marked me absent before because they have’t noticed me sitting in my ASSIGNED seat.
Of course, invisibility can have its drawbacks.
I’ve also gone through AWKWARD situaitons in which people have sat on me from not realising I was there. But you’d think they would then jump up in horrified shock at the rather lumpy/uncomfortable seat they had plopped down into, only to find it was just a short, skinny girl with aviator sun-glasses and messy hair. You’d think….But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I’ve had to TELL people they were perched on my lap! Here’s one exacmple from riding the late bus, which is about as airy as the St. Louis Metro on the way to a Cardinal’s game on the 1st game of the season (which I’ve experienced, by the way). It makes agoraphobics feel claustriphobic, put nicely.
“Excuse me, *gasp* hate to bother you *pant* and disrupt you
*wheez* – you seem so *cough* comfortable! – but you appear to be *hack* sitting on me. I would *choke* appreciate it if you moved yourself elsewhere *gasp* so I can continue/regulate my *cough* breathing. I’m sure you’re enjoying yourself and are carrying on a pleasent conversation with those who are not being used as an armchair – I sincerely do not mean to spoil your fun – but I really do need to get off here. Could you move your tuba for me? Get your boot off my French horn, too, please. Thank you. Aaagh!! My foot’s stuck in the seatbelt! *trips, falls over onto dirty floor, flat on face, breaking glasses* Oof! Get your books out of the aisle, would you? The corner of War and Peace nearly put my eye out after it shattered the lens of my glasses…” etc, etc, etc…
It might be helpful to note that the un-named person in this is paying nearly no attention to me whatsoever.
That is dialouge is based on an actual situation I was put through. I didn’t actually say that of course, because i f I had, I might not be here today. It went more like:
Me: “Ehm, excuse me? I’m kind of sitting here.”
Other kid: “So?”
Me: “Umm….D’you think you could move?”
Other kid: “HmmmNo, probably not.”
Aaaaaand I wasn’t supid enough to push it any further.
As Calvin once observed about Moe, its amazing how intimidating and threatening people with a miniscule vocabulary can be.
Unfortunately, it only last so long. If you draw TOO much attention to yourself, it’ll immidiately wear off. Unless if you’ve PERFECTED the art, which I haven’t quite yet. When I do, I plan on sabotaging my ex-friend’s important school papers, deleteing his account on RuneScape, stuffing bananas up his grateful nose, shaving his head in a really hideous way when he’s sleeping, erasing all his notes for the finals and replacing them with cheeky notes and insults (in Japanese, of course!!), planting some mud/rubbish in his French horn bell, replacing his valve oil with water and probably a whole lot more.
Has anyone read The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells? It’s pretty good….Peradventure Griffon’s plots could help us with Mostly Harmless, hmm?
Ah yes. I’d also wreck havoc everywhere and give people some good scares. But who wouldn’t do that?
34, 35, 36, MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:evil:
But tra-la-la-layey, come back to the shelling!!!
What are we talking about?!?!?!?!??!?!??!?!?!?
:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:
Hahahalaley! I ate NR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil:
If I was invisible I would play tricks on people. Maybe I’ll take Kokopellis advice and throw pies at people by suprise. Hmmmmmmm…….
Mr smarty is right. oh and I’d sneak into my classroom and change my grades