Capturing Light’s Velocity: YouTubers Film at 10 Trillion Frames Per Second
If you’re an avid Internet user, chances are you’re familiar with the Slow Mo Guys, the YouTube sensation dedicated to capturing a wide array of intriguing moments in slow motion. From bullets colliding mid-air to Will Smith wielding a formidable flamethrower, their content spans a decade of awe-inspiring slow-motion footage.
In their latest venture, the team set out to film “the fastest thing we as the human race know of” – light, which travels at the cosmic speed limit of 300,000 kilometers per second (186,000 miles per second). They turned to specialized equipment found at CalTech to accomplish this ambitious task.
The video host highlights their past achievements, filming at impressive frame rates, reaching up to half a million frames per second. However, at CalTech, they encountered a camera that outpaced theirs significantly, boasting a staggering 10 trillion frames per second – a mind-blowing 20 million times faster than their previous best.
With this extraordinary frame rate, assisted by postdoctoral scholar Peng Wang from the Compressed Ultrafast Photography department, the team aimed to capture the speed of light visually. In 2,000 picoseconds of footage, they anticipated witnessing light traverse the length of a bottle.
It’s crucial to note that the camera exclusively detects light, and the bottle image is superimposed afterward. The result is nothing short of spectacular: the Slow Mo Guys successfully captured the mesmerizing movement of light at an astonishing 10 trillion frames per second.
Read the original article on IFL Science.
Raed more: A Shift from Glory to Scrutiny: The Evolution of Coconut Oil’s Reputation.
