Cloaking Technology Could Protect Offshore Rigs From Destructive Waves 56
cylonlover writes "Recent years have seen much progress in the development of invisibility cloaks which bend light around an object so it can't be seen, but can the same principles be applied to ocean waves that are strong enough to smash steel and concrete? That's the aim of Reza Alam's underwater 'invisibility cloak.' The assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, recently outlined how to use variations of density in ocean water to cloak floating objects from dangerous surface waves."
Re:Might look good in a wave tank (Score:3, Funny)
I, however, do know about oceanography. And I know that calling the technology a "cloak" is a joke, it's simply interference. I haven't even taken Physics III and I understand the principles behind the technology. A typical rig has water velocity sensors looking horizontally outward close to the surface and downward on the drillin' axis. Such a "cloak" would be pointless because the rig is pragmatically a fixed structure and bad conditions above are the same as bad conditions below. In short, if shit too wild, either up top or down below, you ain't drillin'. If existing patterns of surface waves were that dangerous to rigs, nobody would be rigging.
Prove me wrong.
-- Ethanol-fueled
other way around (Score:5, Funny)
Oil rigs are pretty good at exploding on their own without huge waves. we need something to cloak the ocean (and the atmosphere) from from the effects of oil rigs. soviet russia you're our only hope.