The Science of Violet's Vanishing Suit Revealed!

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#1

Well, I was browsigng the magazine

“Popular Science” yesturday, when I came across an article on how scientists have come up with a new

theory on how to make things invisible. First off, you must understand that the reason we see something is

because light bounces off of it. Once this was identified, they use "metamaterial, a complex hybrid

structure of metal and insulator that makes light move around an object." Scientists in the US and the UK

have made this metamaterial, but it only works on one color, ratehr than on the entire spectrum, and still leaves

a slight shadow (like in The Hobbit).

Obviously Edna’s technology is far

more advanced than the government’s for not only has she figured out how to make this metamaterial work on the

entire visible light spectrum, but also be activatedonly when what it is covering (Violet, in this case) no

longer has a color. Or perhaps Violet’s power works in like manner of the metamaterial, thus activating it. I

dunno.

What I thought was cool from the article was the question "What would the inside of the

[metamaterial] cloak look like? If a cloak worked over the entire spectrum, the lack of light would make the

inside black, and you wouldn’t be able to see outside. No one knows exactly what would happen if you turned on a

flashlight inside the cloak."

Any thoughts on the matter?

#2

I might not be a science guy, but I definetly been

thinking about Violet and her invisibility after reading the last post.

#3

Very interesting! That would explain some of the

technology behind Violet’s supersuit, though I have no idea what would happen if a torch was shined inside of

it. It depends on whether the metamaterial works in both the inside and the outside.

#4

I think if a torch did shine inside of her suit, then it still wouldn’t show.

The outside of her suit is kinda like a barrier of light.

#5

Yes, on the outside you wouldn’t see anything, maybe a

dim floating light at most, but on the inside I think it would work as though you were illuminating a cave, it’s

not like the cloak would create a black hole…

#6

I sometimes wonder if something is invisibile, does light

travel through the object?

#7

It appears so, but, like mentioned in the article, the light is bent slightly around the

object. However, I am not a science major, nor am I even rather well-versed in it, so this is no more than a

slightly-educated guess…

#8

So if you shine a flashlight at Violet in her

invisible state, the light would go around or through her right? I am not a science guy myself.

#9

It would travel around her. The light on one

side of her would be bent in such a way that it travels around her body, and then on the other side it is

“un-bent” so that it appears to a viewer as though it had traveled in a

straight line, through her. I may be wrong, because I haven’t read everything there is to read about the

subject, but I’m pretty sure the only way that light would actually be able to travel “through” her

would be if she disintegrated, which would a) mean that in a way it really isn’t travelling “through”

her and b) kind of defeat the purpose of the ability, unless she was able to un-disintegrate, which would then

mean that technically she had the power of teleportation, not invisibility.

I can’t really go any more

in-depth than that and still be completely sure of myself (I think that even with just that I’m slightly in

above my head), since I only have a self-taught and fairly basic knowledge of theoretical physics (the major

Einstein stuff, a little Hawking… the basics).

#10

Wow! That certainly is something to think about. I kinda wondered how Edna got

her suit to do that. Now, if they can just tell me how you’d go about making an indestructable, almost

infinitely stretchable, conforming to any shape material, my world would seem so much simpler :wink:

#11

Since the suit or metamaterial, would bend light I imagine a more direct laser

pointer beam would look perfectly straightm then appear to mover around violet or anything hidden using the

material. The way they described it was that it’s like an airplane’s wings directing wind. So I guess anything

wouldn’t appear completely invisible, but perhaps like a prism or extremely clear glass.

#12

I just wonder how the heck was she able to create that special

material.

#13

Well, she IS E, remember!

:laughing:

#14

Well, it’s not so much making the material,

but actually having it apply to the entire visible spectrum. And if this is scientifically how an object can be

hidden in plain sight, how come Violet can only apply it to her, and not to any objects in close range to her? Is

she not actually becoming invisible, but actually changing her skin pigment like a chameleon? I think the

chameleon theory (or even the Randall theory if you will) make more sense for her

since it appears elswhere in nature, she can control it (like just making her hand invisible), as well it can

only be applied to her natural self. If her power was to work in bending the light, she would probably have more

of an aura around her, thus allowing her clothes to become invisible as well. So I guess this light thing only

applies to the suit.

#15

But if she does have the power to bend the light, why

didn’t the same concept work for her normal clothes. Most of the things I see in movies, when an invisible

object comes into contact with another object that is not invisible, the object that is not invisible should

disappear upon contact.

#16

Only problem with the chameleon theory is in the middle of an open area she could

only be invisible to a single perspective. Looking at her from two different angles she’d be the same color but

wouldn’t necessarily line up with the different backgrounds. Perhaps later I can make a visual describing

this.

#17

Violet’s suit kinda is like a chamillion. The thing is that she is invisible to all

perspectives.

#18

Dash brings up a very good point. Perhaps her invisiblity

is more or less an extra layer in her skin (like near the epidermal layer) and actually illuminates from beneath

her skin, activating a very, very thin layer of light around her. But this brings up the scene when she makes

just her hand dissappear. We don’t see her arm under her sleeve, where there is practically no light there to

bend to create the invisiblity effect. Either way, the suit is definately made of the light bending

metamaterial.

#19

So let me see if I get this straight. The reason why her clothes don’t go

invisible when her body does is because the clothes block out the light coming into her skin?

#20

Well, that’s the thing. Depending on how wide that shield goes around her, then her clothes

should dissapear, unless it is a very thin layer. Even then she wouldn’t be invisible underneath her clothes

since there is no light that gets through to be bended. So the way she bends the visible light around her is so

thin that it would surround JUST her skin and nothing close, even as close as the clothes she is wearing.