YouTubers capture the speed of light on camera filming at 10,000,000,000,000 frames per second
Topics: Space, Technology, YouTube, Science
Chelsea Connor
Featured Image Credit: YouTube / The Slow Mo Guys
Topics: Space, Technology, YouTube, Science
If you’ve ever been on YouTube at any point in your life then there’s a high likelihood you will have heard of tech kings 'The Slow Mo Guys'.
Amassing over 14 million subscribers, Gavin Free and Daniel Gruchy quickly rose to internet notoriety for shots they’ve captured at slow speed, usually showing in depth frame by frame of explosions that we can watch at a thousandth of a second.
It is just plain fascinating to watch in all honesty.
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They’ve posted videos of a huge 6ft water balloon popping at 2,500 frames per second, to Will Smith waving around a flamethrower, and James Corden being hit in the face, which is one of their most popular uploads for some reason.
With high tech equipment they use, the duo wondered if they’d be able to capture the ‘fastest thing known to man’ as a challenge to themselves.
This is the speed of light which travels at the absolute speed limit of the Universe which is 300,000 kilometers per second (186,000 miles per second).
In the video, in which they visited CalTech to use its specialist equipment, they explained to viewers: "Now, we've filmed at some very high frame rates. We're talking up to about 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."
With that frame rate, postdoctoral scholar Peng Wang - who helped Gav and Dan at the Compressed Ultrafast Photography department - assured them that they would be able to see the speed of light. Or, perhaps more scientifically, that they would be able to see light moving the length of a bottle in 2,000 picoseconds of footage.
The only trouble Gav and Dan faced was how to go about it - how do you film something at the speed of light in the first place? It proved to be quite a tricky task.
In the end, the YouTubers filmed using CalTech's camera that shoots at an incredible 10,000,000,000,000 (10 trillion) frames per second, the video sequence had to be measured in picoseconds (1/1,000,000,000,000th of a second).
The results were pretty amazing to say the least.
It’s incredibly impressive to think that we have the technology to capture this on camera, and just as impressive that these guys managed to edit this, frame by frame, for us all to view.
Many viewers have taken to the comments section of the video to share their thoughts.
One wrote: "It's unreal that humanity has something that allows you to see the speed of light. This is really mind blowing."
Another added: "It really does feel like something we shouldn’t have seen it’s insane."
While a third commented: "Can we just take a second to realize how truly insane this technology is."