6 ms·
> THOR engaged the targets and knocked them out of the sky using its non-kinetic, speed-of-light microwave pulses. Maybe that's military jargon but in Physics
by hn8305823 3y ago
> THOR engaged the targets and knocked them out of the sky using its non-kinetic, speed-of-light microwave pulses.
Maybe that's military jargon but in Physics photons definitely carry and deliver kinetic energy.
- zacharycohn 3y agoA kinetic weapon is one that damages the target by smashing into it. Blunt projectiles like rocks, arrows, bullets, etc. This is a non-kinetic weapon, because it does not damage the target through kinetic force.
- hn8305823 3y ago> This is a non-kinetic weapon, because it does not damage the target through kinetic force. It is literally the kinetic energy of the photons and nothing else that is disabling the drones. The photon kinetic energy is transferred to electrons that either overheat components or destroy control electronics with excessive voltage (the article did not specify which).
- nostrademons 3y agoIntended audience: not physicists.
- zactato 3y agoUnnecessary pedantry. You know what the title meant.
- aidenn0 3y agoIt's the kinetic energy of a HEAT round that damages a tank too, but that's not classified as a KEW either, since a KEW is where the sole damage done is by the energy of a projectile (and a HEAT round it's the chemical energy in the round that produces most of the damage, after being converted to thermal and kinetic energy). I will propose that (generally speaking) a projectile has mass, which would exclude photons from the definition.
- spokeonawheel 3y agoso classification of non-kinetic weapon versus "non-kinectic light wave pulses" seems like grammatical confusion to me...
- reilly3000 3y agomicroWaves ≠ photons. It just has to mess with the target’s waves with precision chaos.
- gpm 3y agoMicrowaves are literally photons. They're waves because of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave%E2%80%93particle_duality#Classical_particle_and_wave_theories_of_light https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave%E2%80%93particle_duality#...
- reilly3000 3y agoIn the context of microwave systems, the most relevant information is coming from the waveform function, not the substrate. The densely distributed particles are making small movements in response to its neighboring particle’s ‘tensors’. I think a lot of people think of the laser concept of photons shooting through space, but with masers the waveform and it’s amplification are what make it meaningful.
- baxtr 3y agoWell… aren’t microwaves electromagnetic waves and as such photons?!
- karaterobot 3y agoYes, I do think the military usage is different than the physicist's usage. I don't think (or at least cannot find) a consistent, hard-and-fast definition, but it seems like they are using kinetic in this sense to mean something that goes boom, and looks cool, and is hard to deny when shown on television. One thing I'm fairly sure about is that they aren't thinking about physics when they use that phrase! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_military_action https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_military_action
- jameshart 3y agoMilitary usage of the words ‘force’, ‘momentum’, and ‘charge’ also don’t follow their classical physics definitions. Likewise military specialists look confused when mathematicians ask them whether ‘military operations’ are commutative.
- karaterobot 3y agoI remember describing something as hyperbolic (meaning ridiculously overstated) to a guy with a degree in some sort of fluid mechanics related thing, and he was like "I'm impressed you know that word, but that's a very specific term that doesn't mean what you think it means...", because it is a term he only knew from work. I had to show him a dictionary to prove that sometimes the same word can have different meanings. I'm sure this is an example of that.
- jameshart 3y agoIt’s energy, but is it kinetic energy? The photon’s massless, but it has momentum… so it can transfer kinetic energy, but does it do so kinetically? More to the point, ‘kinetic energy’ is ‘movement energy’ - energy you possess by virtue of the fact you are moving. Show me a stationary photon and we can talk about its ‘kinetic’ energy vs. some other kind of energy.
- _x9du 3y agoI don't understand that, given that momentum is mass times velocity. Can you explain?
- jameshart 3y agoFor a photon, momentum is (edit) the inverse of its wavelength, times the Planck constant. I appreciate that this is not really an ‘explanation’.
- mercutio2 3y agoNon-relativistic momentum is (simplified to) mass times velocity. Photons have zero mass, but still have momentum, p=h/λ.
- denton-scratch 3y agoMass == energy.
- paulddraper 3y ago> photons definitely carry and deliver kinetic energy Technically correct, practically irrelevant. Full direct sunlight exerts 1 ounce per 20 aces. --- Kinetic weapons are bullets, bombs, etc. As contrasted with chemical weapons, or electromagnetic weapons.