Create a Versatile Light Barrier with Plasma Curtains

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the concept of creating a light barrier that can be switched on and off to restrict visibility in a room. Participants explore various methods, including plasma curtains, charged smoke particles, and traditional curtains, while considering the practicality and implications of each approach.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • One participant suggests using plasma curtains as a means to create a light barrier that can be walked through but not seen through.
  • Another participant questions the feasibility of plasma curtains, proposing a traditional curtain with a remote-controlled motor as a simpler alternative.
  • A different viewpoint highlights the challenges of using plasma due to its high temperature, suggesting that lasers could create an invisible barrier if combined with a dust emitter to make the light visible.
  • One participant proposes the idea of a magnetically confined screen of charged smoke particles as a potential solution, raising questions about the type of dust needed and the practicality of maintaining a magnetic field.
  • Another participant mentions the need for a method to prevent the dust from settling, indicating that while the magnetic approach is possible, it may be complex and costly.
  • Some participants humorously suggest simpler alternatives, such as using a bead curtain or joking about unconventional dust emitters.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of opinions, with no consensus on the best method for creating a light barrier. Some favor traditional solutions, while others explore more complex and innovative ideas.

Contextual Notes

Participants discuss various assumptions about the properties of materials and the feasibility of proposed methods, including the safety and practicality of using plasma and charged particles. The discussion remains open-ended with unresolved technical details.

mystic_i
Plasma Curtains or Artifical Curtains or Light Curtains..

Can anyone think of a way we can creat a light barrier that can be switched on and off to restric view ?

So you want to partition a room into two...you put up this light barrier in the middle of the room which can be walked through but you can't see through it?
 
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I don't think so, but why not just use a curtain? You can have it open or shut by a small remote controll motor, and you can have vertical slits to make passage easier...
 
Plasma, by its nature, is very hot.
Passing through a slab of this stuff would be uncomfortable.

To have light be emitted from any source, there has to be some high energy "stuff" there. You could have lasers set up so that they focus on a precise plane in the room, but you would not see any curtain unless you had some dust of some sort in that location.

This could be done if you had a dust emitter at the top of the zone and a vacuum at the bottom, so that there is a flow of this dust always at the zone where the lasers are focused. Every time you walk through, though some dust will scatter throughout the room, so it better be something totally benign and hypoallergenic.

After all this consideration, a solid partition begins to look like a better idea.
 
what about a magnetically confined screen of charged smoke particles?
 
Originally posted by Fuego
what about a magnetically confined screen of charged smoke particles?

We'd need to create diamagnetic dust. (or is it paramagnetic) Finely ground glass would work, but don't breathe while you go through the curtain. THen we'd need to figure out how to confine a magnetic field to a narrow plane. Not impossible, I'm sure, but it would have to include using a gigantic current (kinda spendy). THen we'd need to have something that keeps the dust from settling to the floor, since our magnetic miracle could only keep the dust from drifting forward or back.

Possible, but I still say the plastic sheet is easier!
 
why not just get one of those hippie bead curtains??
 
A good dust emitter would be someone (you don't like) with a chronic dandruff problem, and when you get bored of him...*shove* into the hot plasma, u get dust for a few more seconds and you can get on with what you are doing in privacy!
 

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