The final solution to fully understanding spectral lines for atoms immersed in electromagnetic fields. Understand how to exterminate the degeneracy from spectral lines!

Poster generated using ChatGPT -- it's rather beautiful and I did not see it coming! AI's true triumph of the will!

Gemini Flash's summary (some sections ommited):

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Based on the provided infographic, here is a comprehensive summary of the Stark Effect, its mechanism, types, applications, and historical context.

1. What is the Stark Effect?

Discovered by German physicist Johannes Stark in 1913, the Stark Effect refers to the shifting and splitting of atomic or molecular spectral lines when subjected to an external electric field.

• The Mechanism: An external electric field perturbs the energy levels of electrons. This interactions removes their degeneracy (energy levels with the same energy), causing the levels to shift and split.
• The Outcome: Because transitions now occur between these newly modified energy levels, they produce multiple distinct spectral lines instead of a single one.

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5. Historical Context & Controversy

While Johannes Stark won the 1919 Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery and his work on the Doppler effect in canal rays, his legacy is deeply controversial:

• "Deutsche Physik": Stark was a vocal proponent of this movement, which rejected "Jewish physics" (including relativity and quantum mechanics) as un-German.
• Nazi Alignment: He aligned with the Nazi regime, using his leadership position (such as Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics) to enforce ideological conformity.
• Persecution of Scientists: He helped enforce the 1933 law that led to the dismissal of prominent Jewish and politically opposed scientists like Albert Einstein, Max Born, James Franck, and Heinrich Rubens, which ultimately isolated German physics and set back its scientific progress.

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Image credit goes to yokoichi777, but I took the image from a post on the BeAmazed sub. Also, the defintion of what's considered a metropolitan area varies, with some definitions putting Tokyo's metro population as being slightly smaller than Canada's

Said tools are already used by many large institutions and organizations for their graphic design work, such as for example, major US government departments. You may try to point out the tiny superficial flaws in such works, but remember that these tools will continue to get better and better from this point on, no matter what some vocal minority of terminally-online folks want you to believe.

Inb4 "this is so ridiculous it is obviously impossible", please hear me out! They said it was impossible to circumnavigate the globe, but Magellan's crew proved them wrong! Then they said it was impossible to break the sound barrier. Chuck Yeagar did exactly that! They said it was impossible to go into space. Yuri Gagarin then did the impossible! Then they said it was impossible to walk on the moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin proved otherwise. Obviously, surfing on the sun is far more difficult than walking on the moon, but it is by asking the seemingly impossible that true technological progress gets made. Saying "No, you can't" is the attitude of Luddites.

ChatGPT's response:

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If we interpret "surfing on the Sun" as "riding along the visible surface while remaining intact and in control," then it becomes an interesting physics question rather than a silly one.

The main issue is that the Sun does not have a solid surface. The "surface" we see, called the Photosphere, is a layer of hot plasma with a temperature around 5,800 K. It's more like a glowing atmosphere than an ocean.

That said, let's ask whether some extremely advanced civilization could do something analogous to surfing:

Challenge 1: Heat

Near the photosphere, any ordinary material vaporizes instantly.

To survive, you'd need either:

Active cooling vastly beyond anything we possess.

Extremely reflective electromagnetic fields that keep the craft from physically touching the plasma.

Some form of speculative future technology (fusion-powered shielding, exotic materials, etc.).

This is hard, but not obviously forbidden by known physics.

Challenge 2: What are you surfing on?

The Sun supports waves.

There are:

Acoustic waves (pressure oscillations).

Magnetohydrodynamic waves.

Giant convective cells.

Plasma flows moving at kilometers per second.

A "solar surfboard" might ride one of these wave structures rather than a liquid-water wave.

In fact, physicists study wave phenomena throughout the Sun as part of Helioseismology.

Challenge 3: Gravity

Solar gravity at the photosphere is about 28 times Earth's.

A 70 kg person would effectively weigh almost 2 tonnes.

A human standing there is impossible without enormous support.

A spacecraft, however, doesn't care about weight in the same way—it only cares about structural loads and thrust.

Challenge 4: Sinking

Because the photosphere is gas/plasma, there is no rigid surface.

A literal surfboard would simply descend into denser and hotter layers.

To "ride" the surface, you'd likely need continuous electromagnetic levitation or propulsion.

A more realistic version

An advanced civilization could potentially build a magnetically levitated vehicle that:

1. Floats above the photosphere.

2. Uses magnetic fields to interact with solar plasma.

3. Rides large-scale plasma waves.

That would look remarkably like surfing, except the "board" is a fusion-powered spacecraft and the "ocean" is ionized hydrogen.

Is it forbidden by physics?

Not obviously.

Is it remotely achievable with foreseeable technology? No.

Is it in the same category as "breaking the sound barrier" or "walking on the Moon"? Not really. Those were engineering challenges within known environmental limits. Surfing the Sun requires operating in conditions that destroy known materials and exceed current energy capabilities by enormous margins.

So the answer is:

A human on a surfboard? Impossible under known physics.

A sufficiently advanced spacecraft "surfing" solar plasma waves near the photosphere? Extremely speculative, but not obviously ruled out by the laws of physics.

In that sense, "surfing on the Sun" belongs in the category of ideas that are wildly beyond current technology, yet not necessarily as impossible as "surfing on a neutron star" or "standing on a black hole."

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Any views expressed here are ChatGPT's, not mine. This is more to understand the world view of ChatGPT, not to espouse or lean towards any particular viewpoint or affiliation.

Note that there may be image compression issues while on a mobile device.