Am I the first person to think of this idea?

[dxkj]

I started thinking about this probably 5 years ago in college. I was playing around with a wireless router and pc card and wondered.... If all of this information was being transmitted, wouldnt we be able to store it in thin air?


At first it doesnt make sense, because you would have to setup a loop. System A transmits data, X seconds later System B receives data and retransmits it to System A.

In the time it took the signal to be sent, X, then for that instant it was being stored in thin air..... while that storage may be low... if we were able to slow it down enough, and make enough simultaneous transmissions, we should be able to use it to store information....


then again, I have no clue what slowing down waves would do, because im assuming it would change the wavelength, and in that case I have no idea how that would affect the information stored in those waves....


Anyway, i never went out and said it, so I thought i would type up my thoughts and just see if i was anywhere near what is possible, or if even this was already being done to some extent already

 

[CycloWizard]

Interesting idea, but the problem is that you can't really slow down electromagnetic waves except by changing the medium that they are passing through (and even this has only a small effect in most cases). Electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light, since the speed of light is really, by definition, the speed of the electromagnetic wave in a medium.

 

[NewBlackDak]

It also doesn't make much since in that both units will have to have buffers big enough to receive/store that data until the next transmission.
What happens when one or both looses power?

 

[CTho9305]

Sounds kinda like a mercury delay line.

 

[pm]

Very interesting link, Chris. That is really cool.

 

[ghost03]

what you're describing sounds like it would require a wormhole, or at least some way of bending time. Which although scientifically possible, takes much much more resources than we currently have.

Reminds me of a science fiction story I read once where an astronaut goes into space for 8 years, and comes back to an earth 16 years in the future. He keeps the wormhole open when he gets back, and thus can send radiowaves 8 years in the past, which he uses to save the life a girl he knew that died while he was gone.

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: CycloWizard
Interesting idea, but the problem is that you can't really slow down electromagnetic waves except by changing the medium that they are passing through (and even this has only a small effect in most cases). Electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light, since the speed of light is really, by definition, the speed of the electromagnetic wave in a medium.

Exactly. I also wonder at wave behavior if it wasn't equal to the speed of light in the particular medium...

 

[dxkj]

Yeah it was just some crazy thought Ive been thinking of for the last few years on and off, no real research into it, but a recent article about slowing down light waves made me think.

 

[icarus4586]

In order to slow down EM radiation tangibly, you need some fairly exotic materials, and usually they need to be very dense and very cold.
While it might work for small amounts of data, it would probably be pretty inefficient from a power and cost perspective.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

I remember (kinda) an article which described trapping light waves in a Higgs boson something-or-other. It's a nearly-frozen cloud of particles. A laser beam is shot into the cloud, which is then shot by another laser, a "control" beam. Light does not exit the cloud on the other side. The control beam is shut off, and the original beam exits the cloud.

 

[JimZero]

Originally posted by: ghost03
what you're describing sounds like it would require a wormhole, or at least some way of bending time. Which although scientifically possible, takes much much more resources than we currently have.

Reminds me of a science fiction story I read once where an astronaut goes into space for 8 years, and comes back to an earth 16 years in the future. He keeps the wormhole open when he gets back, and thus can send radiowaves 8 years in the past, which he uses to save the life a girl he knew that died while he was gone.

But if he saves her by sending messages into the past how would he know to send messages into the past? Sounds like sloppy made-for-TV aka Charmed writing.

 

[f95toli]

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
I remember (kinda) an article which described trapping light waves in a Higgs boson something-or-other. It's a nearly-frozen cloud of particles. A laser beam is shot into the cloud, which is then shot by another laser, a "control" beam. Light does not exit the cloud on the other side. The control beam is shut off, and the original beam exits the cloud.

Higgs bosons are particles used to explain gravity in string theory.

You are thinking of bose-einstein condensates; very cold clouds of e.g sodium atoms.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Originally posted by: f95toli

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
I remember (kinda) an article which described trapping light waves in a Higgs boson something-or-other. It's a nearly-frozen cloud of particles. A laser beam is shot into the cloud, which is then shot by another laser, a "control" beam. Light does not exit the cloud on the other side. The control beam is shut off, and the original beam exits the cloud.

Higgs bosons are particles used to explain gravity in string theory.

You are thinking of bose-einstein condensates; very cold clouds of e.g sodium atoms.

Firstly, thank you for your correction. Second, did I mention Cabo Wabo is excellent tequila?

 

[f95toli]

My point was that there are many experiments involving Bose-Einstein condensates including some that utilize the effect you describe, google for "Bose-Einstein" and you will find a lot of information
The fact that you do not need exotic particles like Higgs particles to observe this effect is important since it means that we can actually study it in the lab.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

I'm guessing a likely application is optical computing.

 

[heedoyiu]

could you imagine using that to create visuals in midair
i have no idea

 

[DrPizza]

I'm not sure what is meant by "slow down EM radiation tangibly"

"Light travels through space, a vacuum, at 186,282 miles per second, that is the base refractive index of 1.00, once it hits the atmosphere of earth it is slowed to 186,232 miles per second, that gives air, an index of 1.02 and in water it is slowed down to 140,061 miles per second, water has the refractive index of 1.33, if it goes through glass, such as a window pane it is slowed to 122.554 miles per second, glass has a refractive index of 1.52, when that light hits Diamond the speed is cut drastically to 77,056 miles per second, the diamond has a refractive index of 2.4175."

So, if you could get a 77,056 mile long diamond, with a mirror at the other end, you'd be able to store data for about 2 seconds

 

[DrPizza]

I'm not sure what is meant by "slow down EM radiation tangibly"

"Light travels through space, a vacuum, at 186,282 miles per second, that is the base refractive index of 1.00, once it hits the atmosphere of earth it is slowed to 186,232 miles per second, that gives air, an index of 1.02 and in water it is slowed down to 140,061 miles per second, water has the refractive index of 1.33, if it goes through glass, such as a window pane it is slowed to 122.554 miles per second, glass has a refractive index of 1.52, when that light hits Diamond the speed is cut drastically to 77,056 miles per second, the diamond has a refractive index of 2.4175."

Then again, who said it had to be an EM wave? Why not use sound waves? Get a telephone modem from the early 1980's (1600 baud or something nice and slow), hook it up to a loudspeaker, and transmit away to a receiver a few hundred yards away

So, if you could get a 77,056 mile long diamond, with a mirror at the other end, you'd be able to store data for about 2 seconds