Feynman got his dollar

[eub]

so hattifattener and I can each have fifty cents: a vampire casts no shadow. It must transmit 100% of incident light. Still, a vampire is visible; it does reflect light. Hence, a vampire has total optical gain exceeding unity.

Placing any optical element of this sort within a sufficiently well-mirrored chamber will create a runaway optical amplifier, which if it is to be applied to peacetime uses must be equipped with an exceedingly fast-reacting system modulating absorbent damping. If this hurdle can be overcome -- perhaps using a nonlinear element? -- vampires provide unlimited free and non-polluting energy.

Comments

Re: did someone say nonlinear optics?

[hattifattener]

I think the discussion was predicated on the idea that the non-imageability of vampires is due to the silver backing of mirrors, and an aluminized mirror (or the total internal reflection of a fiber optic cable) could reflect a vampire's image; at any rate, if you can reflect the vampire's image while at the same time having it not cast a shadow, you can use the vampire as a gain medium.

jinian pointed out, however, that silver is a werewolf thing, not a vampire thing.

The book I loadned to Eli makes a good argument that the reason vampires do not reflect in mirrors is that reflections (and other images such as photographs), being nonphysical, are part of the nonphysical (spiritual) world; vampires, being soulless, do not exist in the nonphysical world; and therefore vampires are nonimageable. Unfortunately this theory does not provide a good way to use vampires as a source of limitless, clean energy. (Assuming that you can consider them "clean" despite the RISK TO YOUR IMMORTAL SOUL.)

Perhaps the non-(non-physicality) of vampires is an indication that they have only particle-nature and no wave-nature, in contravention of all that is good and holy about quantum mechanics. On the other hand, why then are they able to turn into mist and go through keyholes?

Re: did someone say nonlinear optics?

[platypuslord.livejournal.com]

vampires, being soulless, do not exist in the nonphysical world
I would have said the opposite. Vampires do not cast shadows or appear in mirrors (nor, we might suspect, do they interact with other purely mechanical detection systems). This seems to imply that they exist only in the nonphysical world.

In some sense, perhaps a vampire is a hallucination; our perceptions of them are psionic projections rather than being transmitted by actual light.

This would resolve the conservation-of-light paradox described earlier. Sadly this theory does not account for other tangible evidence of a vampire's presence.

Re: did someone say nonlinear optics?

[thatmathchick.livejournal.com]

I think your use of the wave-particle duality precisely explains the keyhole behavior. Using simple geometric ("ray") optics, we can see that unless the vampire somehow focuses itself before entering the keyhole, the majority of the vampire-rays would be blocked from passing through to the other side. Particles - vampire quanta, if you will - could be propelled through the keyhole with some initial application of force, easily generated by an energy creating vampire.

Unfortunately, these issues vary depending on your specific vampire mythology. Do vampires have to sleep during daylight hours? If so, is there some solar energy being stored that is simply emitted during night time?

And where was I when you were having this conversation, anyway?

Re: did someone say nonlinear optics?

[jinian.livejournal.com]

vampire quanta, if you will

Deb, I don't care if you're straight. Marry me anyway, and take that boy as a mistress.

I don't know where you were at 11:00 last night. Tell me.

Re: did someone say nonlinear optics?

[eub.livejournal.com]

cicisbeo: The name formerly given in Italy to the recognized gallant or cavalier servente of a married woman. [It.; of uncertain origin: according to the Vocab. della Crusca, perhaps an inversion of bel cece ‘beautiful chick (pea)’; used just in the same sense.]

Re: did someone say nonlinear optics?

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I am certain that I have already asked you to marry me. Good thing this is a big house.

Re: did someone say nonlinear optics?

[thatmathchick.livejournal.com]

Last night I was at home slaving over a hot stack of precalc projects. Now I get to head home (yes I've been at work writing and copying exams) and hopefully get food *and* a warm bath.

Really, I need to join in on these conversations earlier. Also, with more of the sleep. If you warn me, I'll bring home all the pertinent books from the office.

And you don't have to marry me to get my silly abuses of quantum physics :) Though you're welcome to help me get that boy as a mistress...

Re: did someone say nonlinear optics?

[eub.livejournal.com]

The question of silver slipped my mind. Oddly enough, the web speaks with multiple voices on it. I dunno.

Yes, vampires' soullessness could reasonably mean that images of them can't be formed. Would vampire-reflected light then be subject as normal to non-imaging optics? A simple diffuse-reflecting white-painted cell, instead of a mirrored one, might solve the problem.