Physicspunks

[Tim May]

On Thursday, August 16, 2001, at 04:54 PM, Steve Thompson wrote:

> Quoting Anonymous (nobody at paranoici.org):
>> If a block of a metal is hollowed out and a small port is drilled to
>> see in, the radiance of the cavity is substantially higher than that
>> of the surface of the metal.  As if that weren't shocking enough, it
>> turns out that the radiance of cavities is the same no matter what
>> kind of metal is used.  (This is so counterintuitive that I almost
>> don't believe it!)
>
> This is actually a phenomenal result.  If one makes a large enough 
> apparatus
> so that the cavity is very, very large with a correspondingly small 
> port is
> drilled, you've then got the makings of a great beam weapon.


No you don't. Read up on the Stefan-Boltzmann laws and figure out what 
frequencies (energies) a black body radiator emits.

Get real.


--Tim May