Thanks to Superman, the phrase “faster than the speed of light” has been part of the human lexicon for decades.
That said, I’m not sure most of us can really wrap our heads around what it would mean to go that fast.
The YouTubers known as the Slow Mo Guys have been filming things like bullets fired from guns into other bullets and Will Smith manhandling a flamethrower – all in super slow motion.
They’ve been at it for over a decade, and wanted to challenge themselves by filming “the fastest thing we as the human race know of.”
Light travels at the absolute speed limit of the universe – 186,000 miles per second.
They explained that they needed to borrow some specialized equipment from CalTech.
“Now, we’ve filmed at some very high frame rates. We’re talking up to abut half a million, which is not to be sniffed at. 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.”
Postdoctoral scholar Peng Wang assisted the hosts, assuring them they would see the light moving the length of a bottle in 2,000 picoseconds of footage.
The impressive camera captures light as it moves at 10 trillion frames per second.
Check out the video:
Okay, that’s seriously impressive.
If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about why we should be worried about the leak in the bottom of the ocean.