this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] Glowstick@lemmy.world 103 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Actually, c is the speed of light in a vacuum, but light travels slower through a medium, like air. So lasers shot through air will actually travel slower than c.

[–] Bassman1805@lemmy.world 58 points 3 months ago (2 children)

(For anyone curious, the speed of light in earth air is like 99.97% as fast as in vacuum)

[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 22 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Bunch of nerds in this thread.

[–] Vilian@lemmy.ca 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You're in science_memes what did you expected?

[–] Comment105@lemm.ee 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] Eheran@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] ODuffer@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago
[–] ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

exactly where they should be.

[–] LilDumpy@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

Ya, but that's JUST slow enough to be able to see it.

[–] DannyBoy@sh.itjust.works 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Maybe it's going to be space lasers.

[–] 5oap10116@lemmy.world 34 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Do you know what the religious affiliation of these space lasers will be?

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 21 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You have a lot of chutzpah to ask such a question. Oy! What would your mother say?

[–] TheFriar@lemm.ee 6 points 3 months ago

“You’re so skinny why are you not eating”

[–] shasta@lemm.ee 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] marcos@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

A laser strong enough to be used as a weapon will probably not leave a lot of medium on its path.

But the front-most part will still travel at less than c. It will just speed-up after a while.

[–] sinkingship@mander.xyz 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm curious. What happens to the medium? Does it simply get pushed aside? Or pushed along? Or will it eat up some energy and react to something else?

[–] Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 months ago

Much like lightning, a powerful enough laser will ionize the air. That ionized air is hot and rises, just like the ionized gasses from combustion.

A powerful laser will look like a beam of fire.