Metmaterials: The WAVE Of The Future

827 Words2 Pages

Brenton Coon
Jamie Vilos
Info Lit
14 May 2014

METAMATERIALS
THE “WAVE” OF THE FUTURE

For decades film makers and science fiction authors have toyed with the idea of what technology will look like in the future. Be that tractor beams, space ships, holodecks, transporters and so on. Because of the amazing creativity of minds from the past we benefit from their ideas now in the present. Technologies such as cell phones, blue tooth, head’s up displays, touch screens and even sliding glass doors are all inspired by the future foreseen in science fiction. Once again science fiction has inspired science fact in a concept that could revolutionize the way people see and react to the world around them. Inspired by the idea of a cloaking device or invisibility, scientists have achieved the, once thought impossible, task of making an object appear to vanish into thin air using what is now called metamaterials.

Metamaterials are manmade objects that are composed of two or more specifically arranged and distinct materials (Rowe.). They can be 3d printed in sheets, applied directly to a surface, or even be produced using a special method to silk. These metamaterials have the power to manipulate electromagnetic radiation including sound waves, light waves, and ocean waves. Most all materials have a refractive index which dictates how waves would pass through or bounce off of them. For example, a pencil placed in a glass of water will look bent due to the natural refractive index of the water. However, if the water had a negative refractive index then the pencil would appear to bend back onto itself. Metamaterials allow objects to maintain a negative refractive index which bends the waves in ways other materials cannot.

There are many ap...

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Works Cited

Bourzac, Katherine. "A Practical Way to Make Invisibility Cloaks." MIT Technology Rview. N.p., 11 June 2011. Web. 12 May. 2014. .

Ball, Philip. "Invisible Revolution." MIT Technology Rview. N.p., 12 Mar. 2007. Web. 12 May. 2014. .

"How to Make an Object Invisible." MIT Technology Rview. Ed. Duncan Graham-Rowe. N.p., 11 Apr. 2007. Web. 12 May. 2014. .

McKeegan, Noel. "Flexible metamaterials the key to a working invisibility cloak?." GIZMAG. N.p., 11 Apr. 2007. Web. 12 May. 2014. .

Works Cited

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