• News
    • Tech News
    • AI
  • Gadgets
    • Apple
    • iPhone
  • Gaming
    • Playstation
    • Xbox
  • Science
    • News
    • Space
  • Streaming
    • Netflix
  • Vehicles
    • Car News
  • Social Media
    • WhatsApp
    • YouTube
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
TikTok
Snapchat
WhatsApp
Submit Your Content
YouTubers filmed the speed of light at 10 trillion frames per second

Home> Science

Published 09:43 14 May 2024 GMT+1

YouTubers filmed the speed of light at 10 trillion frames per second

The fastest speed on Earth has been slowed down.

Rebekah Jordan

Rebekah Jordan

If you like your science-y or geeky stuff, you might have heard of the Slow Mo Guys.

They've built up a pretty big rep on YouTube, and more recently TikTok, putting everything in slow motion from how the Nintendo Zapper works to spinning laser discs.

This time they've gone all out with the fastest of all speeds: the speed of light.

Advert

Whilst that might sound impossible, it can be done with some pretty impressive technology.

Typically, the Slow Mo Guys film at half a million frames per second, but this is not nearly fast enough to capture light in motion.

This is where the researchers at CalTech come in.

The team's Compressed Ultrafast Photography department and a camera make the Slow Mo Guys' setup look totally small in comparison.

Advert

The Slow Mo Guys / YouTube
The Slow Mo Guys / YouTube

For one, their camera, known as the T-CUP, can shoot at 10 trillion frames per second, making it capable of putting any fast-moving object into slow motion.

'Now, we've filmed at some very high frame rates. We're talking up to about half a million, which is not to be sniffed at,' explained one of the Slow-Mo Guys host.

'Their camera puts ours to shame and does 10 trillion frames per second. For reference, that is 20 million times faster than the fastest we've ever filmed on this channel.'

Using the T-CUP, the Slow Mo Guys set out to film a laser beam as it passed through a milk bottle.

Advert

And why a milk bottle, you ask?

Well, the milk inside scatters the laser light, making it visible as it zips from one end of the bottle to the other in roughly 2,000 picoseconds.

To put that into perspective, that's faster than a blink of an eye, according to the YouTubers.

SEAN GLADWELL / Getty /
SEAN GLADWELL / Getty /

Advert

The result worked as intended and captured the laser light moving through the bottle, making it appear as a strange blue slime.

'On the bottle video, the light seems to have gained the same speed so you’ve got to remember that the scale of this is much smaller,' added one of the Slow Mo guys, Gavin Free.

'This distance here is one millimetre, whereas before it was the entire bottle, which shows you that we’re actually capturing light travelling through such a small amount of space and it’s so slow now that our picosecond has a decimal place to the hundredths femtosecond.'

And this is not just a video for pure entertainment either.

Advert

Lihong Wang, one of the camera's creators, along with other CalTech scientists are hopeful that they could eventually create a camera capable of capturing up to one quadrillion frames per second.

Wang described that this kind of technology could do wonders for future research in understanding the human body, potentially allowing us to see tissues, including detailed images of the brain.

Featured Image Credit: SEAN GLADWELL / Getty / The Slow Mo Guys / YouTube
Science

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

11 hours ago
16 hours ago
18 hours ago
3 days ago
  • 11 hours ago

    Fake dentist who treated 'dozens' of patients arrested after worrying Google searches were exposed

    Fake it till you make it, or not in this case

    Science
  • 16 hours ago

    Biohacker who spends millions to ‘live forever’ reveals alarming mistake that caused his face to ‘blow up’

    Bryan Johnson has received blood transfusions from his son in a bid to live forever

    Science
  • 18 hours ago

    Doctor explains 'Ozempic penis' phenomenon after men begin reporting side effect

    Some men who use the weight loss drugs have noticed the bizarre side effect

    Science
  • 3 days ago

    Scientists issue warning after harmful species breed to form terrifying 'hybrid swarms'

    The new species can't be stopped from growing its colonies

    Science
  • YouTubers filmed the speed of light at 10 trillion frames per second
  • YouTubers who filmed the speed of light at 10,000,000,000,000 frames per second explain how they did it
  • Rare substance present at the dawn of the universe is worth $62,000,000,000,000 per gram
  • 'Mystery' of universe solved as scientists make shocking discovery '10 times' bigger than our galaxy