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Surprising Science

Are We Closer to Building an Invisibility Cloak?

Are we getting closer to building an invisibility cloak? According to new research out of Duke University, science may have built an early ancestor to the science fiction device. 


Watch the video below of a demonstration of what’s being called an “acoustic cloak.” The Huffington Posthas more:

Made of sheets of perforated plastic, the pyramid-shaped cloak changes the shape and speed of sound waves as they hit it. Those changes make the sound waves appear to reflect off the surface the pyramid is standing on, as though it wasn’t there.

To build the cloak, Lucian Zigoneanu, Bogdan-Ioan Popa and Steven Cummer modeled the way sound waves act on a computer. They tried several simulated shapes, and eventually came up with the pyramid design, made with sheets that have holes in them.

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Image credit: Dave Young/Flickr


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