Dear Santa,
I know this is short notice, but only this week, while talking with my better half about matter, I thought of something so wonderful that I hope you’ll be able to leave it in my stocking this year.
What I would like is a thermos full of photons.
Imagine how much fun this would be in a completely darkened room. Unscrew the top and suddenly, a burst of light! It’s not altogether unlike the thrill of opening the can of “fancy mixed nuts” out of which springs the fake snake. But the jar of photons would be much, much cooler.
I understand how busy you are in December, so I tried to make one of these on my own by filling one of my thermos jars with photons (from a strong flashlight). Unfortunately, after shining the light into the thermos jar, I couldn’t get the lid screwed on quickly enough, and all the photons escaped.
But Santa, you know how to do seemingly impossible things with the physical world. Near-simultaneous delivery of gifts in each time zone, flying reindeer — you’re the go-to guy for implementing ideas that ought to be impossible.
Besides, if you can put the thermos o’ photons into production, I’m betting it will be the best stocking stuffer since the moo can.
Thanks in advance, Santa!
Love,
Dr. Free-Ride
P.S. The sprogs have been trying to figure out whether you have an email address. Do you? (Or is it so full of spam that snail mail is better?)
P.P.S. About those reindeer … you have kept your IACUC approval current, right?
This stuff kinda works that way.
http://www.unitednuclear.com/glow.htm
Good luck on your wish
What I would like is a thermos full of photons.
Sounds like you’re looking for something like caloric fluid
It’s much easier to make photons than to store them.
By the way, I’m still waiting for people to discover the fundamental particle of dark (the photoff).
-Rob
santa@santaclaus.com
A half liter thermos at 300 K contains 300 billion photons. Isn’t that enough?
Hey, this is pretty close. Nerd-out your nalgene.
http://www.guyotdesigns.com/s.nl/it.A/id.303/.f?sc=10&category=-110
if you could silver the mirrored innards of this thermos with a material that absorbed essentially none of the energy when it reflected then you have a chance. No such material, no such thermos.
[sorry, we phyiscists can be such wet blankets.]
Seasons greetings to Stemwedels, sprogs and better halves.
No sooner do I pontificate the infeasibility of your wish than one of those blankety-blank scientists goes and incrementally increases the feasibility!
http://www.technologyreview.com/BizTech/17936/
Put a flashlight in the thermos and wire it so when the lid is off, the flash light is turned on.
Not exactly what you want but the result is similar, the light shines out of the thermos.