Re: Universal non-point of light
Michael Lorrey (retroman@tpk.net)
Wed, 05 Feb 1997 19:10:17 -0500
Hal Finney wrote:
>
> From: Michael Lorrey <retroman@tpk.net>
> > I just read about it in scientific american. What it does is polarize a
> > laser beam, split the beam, and put one of the splits through a
> > polarizer at 45 deg from the first, plus some other steps I can't
> > remember, but basically it allows one to observe without influencing.
>
> I read that article too, and although it was truly a remarkable result it
> would not lead to faster than light communication.
>
> What the article describes is a method to determine whether a photon
> path is blocked or not, while reducing the photon flux in that path to
> an arbitrarily small amount. It uses quantum interference to determine
> whether a photon might have gone down that path, even though no photons
> ever actually do go that way.
>
> Theoretically you could scan the photon path across an object and
> take a picture of it, without actually hitting it with any photons.
> If X-rays could be manipulated optically as easily as visible-light
> photons, you could take an X-ray photo of a specimen without exposing
> it to damaging X-ray radiation.
>
> I'm not sure what would be needed for faster than light communication, but
> this isn't it.
>
> Hal
If you don't need to hit it with a photon, then you aren't restricted by
the speed of light are you?
--
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Michael Lorrey
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