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Re:US Air Force Shoots Down Drone Swarm with THOR Microwave ... by binarymax on Friday May 19, 2023 @03:44PM (#36006019)
> THOR engaged the targets and knocked them out of the sky using its non-kinetic, speed-of-light microwave pulses.

Microwaves dont travel at the speed of light. Did they mean line of sight?

Edit - well guess I was wrong!

Re:US Air Force Shoots Down Drone Swarm with THOR Microwave ... by doctoboggan on Friday May 19, 2023 @03:45PM (#36006037)
Why wouldn't they? They are just EM waves. "Light" is used colloquially for the visible spectrum but microwaves could be considered light waves
Re:US Air Force Shoots Down Drone Swarm with THOR Microwave ... by ared38 on Friday May 19, 2023 @04:15PM (#36006350)
You are actually correct. The speed of light you always hear about is the speed of EM radiation in a perfect vacuum. In a medium such as the atmosphere, the pulse doesn't travel as fast. The slowdown depends on the refractive index, which itself depends on the frequency of the wave -- longer wavelengths have lower indices. This means that microwaves will move the tiniest bit faster than light through the atmosphere.
Re:US Air Force Shoots Down Drone Swarm with THOR Microwave ... by tasseff on Friday May 19, 2023 @03:55PM (#36006129)
You might have been colloquially correct. Microwaves travel at the speed of light, but my microwave that heats up a Hot Pocket can't. :-)
Re:US Air Force Shoots Down Drone Swarm with THOR Microwave ... by jakeinspace on Friday May 19, 2023 @04:06PM (#36006260)
They’ll work in a pinch against a drone idling below your kitchen window.
Re:US Air Force Shoots Down Drone Swarm with THOR Microwave ... by phendrenad2 on Friday May 19, 2023 @03:46PM (#36006044)
> Microwaves dont travel at the speed of light

Yes, they do, microwaves are just a wavelength of light.

Re:US Air Force Shoots Down Drone Swarm with THOR Microwave ... by krapp on Friday May 19, 2023 @03:46PM (#36006043)
Microwaves do travel at the speed of light, all electromagnetic radiation does.