> THOR engaged the targets and knocked them out of the sky using its non-kinetic, speed-of-light microwave pulses.
Maybe that's military jargon but in Physics photons definitely carry and deliver kinetic energy.
Maybe that's military jargon but in Physics photons definitely carry and deliver kinetic energy.
This is a non-kinetic weapon, because it does not damage the target through kinetic force.
seems like grammatical confusion to me...
It is literally the kinetic energy of the photons and nothing else that is disabling the drones. The photon kinetic energy is transferred to electrons that either overheat components or destroy control electronics with excessive voltage (the article did not specify which).
I will propose that (generally speaking) a projectile has mass, which would exclude photons from the definition.
Likewise military specialists look confused when mathematicians ask them whether ‘military operations’ are commutative.
Technically correct, practically irrelevant.
Full direct sunlight exerts 1 ounce per 20 aces.
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Kinetic weapons are bullets, bombs, etc.
As contrasted with chemical weapons, or electromagnetic weapons.
More to the point, ‘kinetic energy’ is ‘movement energy’ - energy you possess by virtue of the fact you are moving.
Show me a stationary photon and we can talk about its ‘kinetic’ energy vs. some other kind of energy.
I appreciate that this is not really an ‘explanation’.
Photons have zero mass, but still have momentum, p=h/λ.