University of the Philippines' National Institute of Physics (NIP) developed a Harry Potter-like invisibility cloak based on the work of US scientists.
This innovation makes it possible for high school students to experiment with making things disappear at more affordable prices.
This team of scientists is composed of Miguel Revilla, JC Lorenzo, and Nathaniel Hermosa demonstrated how the invisibility cloak worked. They demonstrated the disappearance of a metal bar inserted in the middle of an apparatus. The apparatus is made of readily available parts that include optics obtained from old office equipment.
Movies always show themes on making things disappear. People always want to make fantasy into a reality even from Plato's Ring of Gyges to Rowling's Cloak of Invisibility.
Light travels in a straight line unless something block or reflects it. The bending of light around an object makes it possible for the eye to be fooled into not seeing an object---making it invisible.
The use of mirrors is the easiest way to make something invisible. However, this requires setting up properly as a slight deviation from an angle would break the illusion.
The "Rochester Cloak" was the most recent set-up in creating this invisibility. It was in 2014 that University of Rochester doctoral student Joseph Choi and professor John Howell developed this set-up.
There limitations in this set up as to the variety of lenses and the size that can be used.
Revilla and his team improvised the Rochester Cloak by making it more compact and determining how different lens combinations with different focal lengths. This was different from the original set-up that used only two pairs of lenses with the same focal lengths.
"Schools lacking sets of lenses can benefit from this as well. They may have old or broken overhead projectors where they can get the lenses from," Revilla said.
The researchers said it was only a beginning since the invisibility cloak would require a wide range of light and have the capacity to make large objects disappear when viewed in all angles. Revilla emphasized that the key in developing the said cloak would be based on materials science.
"Research in invisibility is continuous and new technologies and materials are being developed and fabricated yearly," Revilla explained. "Probably the difficult part of making the cloak is developing the material itself."
Hermosa and his team believe that the current research will influence children to pursue careers in the field of science as high school teachers can use the set up in their classrooms.
"I want something that will benefit physics education. My gut feel is our research will have a much heavier impact in the education community," Hermosa concluded.
