Everyone ’s best-loved clacking screen background amusement has been weaponize . Well , almost : researchers at CalTech have used Newton ’s Cradle as a jump off period for an acoustic weapon system capable of ripping through a hero sandwich with its sonic bullet .
The concept is similar : 21 parallel rows of ball comportment , each with weight bind to the end . The drib another testis on the end of a row , and watch the compression wave build . It ’s what happens when you get to the goal of the line of business that severalise an ExecuToy from a murder machine :
But unlike Newton ’s cradle , the organisation does n’t let the last nut carry the compression undulation outwards ; rather , the energy is passed into the metamaterial , which tightly focuses the wave to a speckle a few inches away from the acoustic lens . The researchers were capable to focus all of the audio into a very small surface area , and in doing so they amplify the waves more than 100 times beyond what premature metamaterials have achieved .
BAM .
Sound bullets have the dual reward of being able to travel through air , liquids , and solids likewise , and of being ridiculously awesome , conceptually . Even better : they can be scaled up to Italian sandwich - ruin levels , or down for foggy , friendlier aesculapian function . Hypothetically , profound heater could even someday be used to kill off tumors .
allow it , though : you ’d rather see the hoagie thing . [ Discovery NewsviaPopSci ]
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