Eli5- WW84: Wouldn’t radar still be able to detect an invisible jet

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Spoiler for WW84! In the movie, WW turns a jet invisible which causes the radar to lose its signal. I’m no scientist, but I would think radar would still pick up an invisible aircraft. Since the aircraft is only invisible to the naked eye, radar would still bounce off the aircraft revealing its position. I’m perfectly fine accepting the explanation that this was done just for a good scene. I just want to make sure I’m not an idiot.

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10 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

I will take a more scientific approach. Light is a electromagnetic wave like radio waves. If one was somehow able to make light pass right through a object rendering it invisible. There is no reason to think that they could not make all em waves pass through that same object rendering it invisible to not just the visible spectrum but the entire spectrum of em waves.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Well presumably the “magic” makes the jet not interact with light in anyway (hence why it’s invisible). Radar is also just light (of a wavelength outside the visual spectrum), so presumably it wouldn’t interact with it either. But [also](https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.kym-cdn.com%2Fentries%2Ficons%2Ffacebook%2F000%2F018%2F816%2Fits-magic-i-aint-gotta-explain-shit2.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fknowyourmeme.com%2Fmemes%2Fits-magic-i-aint-gotta-explain-shit&tbnid=0LJyiGNdUPOQlM&vet=12ahUKEwiQ2ILJ5fPtAhXJAs0KHZcIClYQMygAegUIARCKAQ..i&docid=kgUZH6UuWqd1kM&w=720&h=479&q=it%27s%20magic%20i%20ain%27t%20gotta%20explain&ved=2ahUKEwiQ2ILJ5fPtAhXJAs0KHZcIClYQMygAegUIARCKAQ)

Anonymous 0 Comments

Radar works by bouncing electromagnetic radiation off of solid objects and recording the resulting signals. If Wonder Woman can render a material transparent to visible light, that is to say electromagnetic radiation in the range of 400 to 700 nm, there’s no reason in pricinciple why she shouldn’t be able to allow radar signals of a different wavelength to pass through it as well.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Invisible plane isn’t reflecting electromagnetic waves from the visible spectrum, making it invisible to the human eye. Radar is the same, just a different wavelength. Why would it reflect radar and not visible light?

Granted that’s a physics explanation for magic though 🙂

Anonymous 0 Comments

The translucent nature of the “stimulated paint” allows waves of radar as well as light pass through and around the aircraft.

You can’t make this shit up, oh…. wait…. I just did.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I mean, it’s all effectively magic. Make up any answer you want, and justify that answer any way you like, and no one can say you’re wrong.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Yes, a radar doesn’t work like human eyes, it doesn’t need to literally see a thing.

As long as the plane exists then the radar would know it’s there, doesn’t matter if it’s visually invisible.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Wonder Woman used magic to do it, the same magic that made Paradise Island undetectable by mortal men. Presumably that magic wasn’t just making the jet invisible, but magically undetectable entirely.

Anonymous 0 Comments

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Radio waves and visible light are both made up of electromagnetic radiation. The difference is in the frequency of that radiation. We can only see a narrow band of frequencies that we call visible light. For anything else we need to special equipment. Radar uses radiowaves to be able to “see” very far solid objects, because its really good at bouncing off things.

For something to be invisible to radar and the eye, both radiowaves and visible light would have to pass straight through it.

I don’t think I’ve ever considered whether something invisible would be so for all parts of the EM spectrum! Could you detect the invisible man’s heat signature in infrared? What about ultraviolet?