Physics of the Impossible

Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration Into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel is a 2008 book by physicist Michio Kaku, who has a Ph.D. in theoretical physics, He is a professor of theoretical physics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and is a cofounder of string field theory. Kaku uses discussion of speculative technologies to educate the interested reader in lessons of fundamental physics. The topic of invisibility becomes a discussion on the reason the speed of light is slower in water than a vacuum, that electromagnetism occurs in waves like ripples on a pond, and a discussion on the use of newly developed composite materials. The topic of hand-held lasers, or Star Trek “phasers”, become lessons on how today’s lasers work and how the current research in the technology is done. With each discussion of science fiction technology topics he also “explains the hurdles to realizing these science fiction concepts as reality."

Contents

Each chapter states the technology mentioned and how it might become a reality, although chapters become somewhat more general towards the end of the book due to lack of research. Some of the technologies mentioned are explained as per a slightly altered form, which remains as true to the original concept as possible while remaining practical. Kaku concludes his book with a short epilogue detailing the newest frontiers in physics and how there is still much more to be learned about physics and our universe.

Impossibility

According to Kaku, 150 years ago, technological advances that we take for granted today were declared impossible. William Thomson Kelvin (1824 – 1907) , a mathematical physicist and inventor of the Kelvin scale said publicly that “heavier than air” machines were impossible. “He thought X-rays were a hoax, and that radio had no future.” Ernest Rutherford (1871 – 1937), a famous physicist who experimentally described the atom, thought the atom bomb was impossible and he compared it to moonshine. Televisions, computers, and the internet would seem incredibly fanstastic to the people of the turn of the 20th century. Black holes were considered science fiction and even Einstein showed that black holes could not exist. 19th century science had determined that it was impossible for the earth to be billions of years old. Even in the 1920’s and 1930’s Robert Goddard was scoffed at because it was believed that rockets would never be able to go into space. Such advances were considered impossible because the basic laws of physics and science were not understood as they are understood today. Kaku states that “as a physicist he learned that the impossible is often a relative term.” So, he asks the questions – isn’t it possible to think that we might build space ships that can travel distances of light years, or think that we might teleport ourselves from one place to the other?

Physical limits of technology

Kaku writes that since scientists understand the basic laws of physics today they are able to percieve or imagine a basic outline of future technologies that might work. Kaku writes: "Physicist today understand the basic laws [of physics] extending over a staggering forty three orders of magnitude, from the interior of the proton out to the expanding universe." He goes on to say that physicists can discern between future technologies that are merely improbable and those technologies that are truly impossible. He uses a system of Class I, Class II, and Class III to classify these science-fictional future technologies that are believed to be impossible today:

• Class I Impossibilities are "technologies that are impossible today, but that do not violate the known laws of physics." Kaku speculates that these technologies may become available in some limited form in a century or two.
• Class II Impossibilities “technologies that sit at the very edge of our understanding of the physical world," possibly taking thousands or millions of years to become available.
• Class III Impossibilities “technologies that violate the known laws of physics." Kaku only lists a few of these. Development of these technologies would represent a fundamental shift in human understanding of physics.

See also

• The Physics of Star Trek, a similar book by the physicist Lawrence M. Krauss

External links

• Kaku's personal website
• Review in The Independent
• Review in NewScientist.com