Scotch Tape Renders Frosted Glass Clear

Computers & Mobile Science Technology
Scotch Tape Renders Frosted Glass Clear
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OK, so, maybe the fact that, under vacuum, Scotch tape will emit enough hard x-rays to image the bones in your finger is slightly more impressive, but this is still a pretty cool trick from YouTuber TheFarmacyMan. My off-the-cuff explanation: Glass is frosted because of tiny imperfections in the surface, which refract passing light a’whichaways. The tape adhesive fills ’em in and, because its outer surface is flat, the rays can pass through more or less straight again. Frosting on both sides of the glass would presumably require tape on both sides for the effect to work. [via Boing Boing]

10 thoughts on “Scotch Tape Renders Frosted Glass Clear

  1. Drew Marold says:

    Same thing happens with water. If you’ve ever hand washed a frosted glass container, while it’s wet it gets clear, then as the water runs off goes back to translucent.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Peeping Toms everywhere are rejoicing.

  3. Kenneth Warren says:

    Not as impressive as using it as a holographic storage medium. Now that was impressive.

  4. Cory Johnson says:

    It’s not really a privacy risk since it only works on the frosted side (which is usually on the inside). It also works (just not quite as well) with dry erase markers, as seen here:
    http://caj.s3.amazonaws.com/3d.jpg

  5. Anonymous says:

    Also works on old scratched up film for scanning. Also ruins the film.

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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