Tuesday, October 15, 2013

3rd post: force fields- Hai, Mary, Hope

A force field is something with a strong intensity that restricts or impedes the movement of an object toward an area or another object. Force fields are used commonly in science-fiction media, both movies and literature. They are stereotypically used as shields for military purposes and are invisible to the eye. However, in the real world, force fields are much less common and are very hard to produce. They are used more for scientific purposes instead of military, such as shielding ships from the sun’s radiation to gather more data.
One type of force field possible is a plasma shield. Plasma is a superheated gas that when concentrated enough does not allow entrance to radiation waves. Research has been done into creating a thin layer of plasma around a space shuttle that would protect it from sun allowing the ship to fly closer. The problem with this type of shield is that it takes a great amount of energy to generate and is hard to keep concentrated. A ship surrounded  by a plasma cloud was flown in the direction of the sun, however the plasma cloud dissipated leaving the ship unprotected making this shield unuseful.
Another type of force field is a magnetic shield. This shield is generated by magnetic forces. The magnetic field produces a repulsion to other magnetic objects. This shield is easier to control. Researchers have tested this shield by putting a giant magnet plate on cars which would not only protect from roadside bombs and RPGs, but also would make these cars lighter than most and therefore more efficient. The downside to this is it could not stop a bullet if fired at.
 

Our group decided that having a force field is a good idea in theory, however, making one in reality is hard and takes up a lot of energy and money. Maybe in the future, after much research and experimentation, having a working force field like in the movies will be possible. 

    
image URL: https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ89Cj8qjDc0QT50VVKDTEwJLSA18HXU2JyXB949GgfmUxK19gy

No comments:

Post a Comment