Cloaking Devices-Question

[ryan2390]

Ok, Well we all know cloaking devices work by beding light around themselves when active right?

Now, for those of you who are unaware, Light as we see it(Visible Light) is an Electro-Magnetic Wave.

Now this brings me on to my question....Radar is a concentrated beam of radio waves...radio waves are also EM waves...so based upon this surely a cloaked object would be invisible to radar?

Ryan  

[Naphatarie]

I think Picard said in one episode it was.  

[Saoraan]

Even if it wasn't the cloaked ship in question could simply block the waves with its shields. The original Enterprise under Kirk did this when they traveled back in time to past earth to avoid detection.  

[Red Roses in December]

I think this is a really good question! There are two ways to answer it. You could say that the cloak would just deflect the radar, or you could say that deflecting the radar would make a warbird-shaped blip on the screen. I may look into this further!  

[Steel Sterling]

Yes.

The Klingon Bird-of-Prey in Star Trek 4 was completely undetected by
late 20th century tech while cloaked.  

[Emi Uoza]

I think the cloaking device doesn't make it actually invisible, just unseen by radar.
Making it invisible in space seems a little strange. It's not like federation ships are lined with windows.  

[Se Ga Takai]

Emi Uoza

I think the cloaking device doesn't make it actually invisible, just unseen by radar.
Making it invisible in space seems a little strange. It's not like federation ships are lined with windows.

They are, actually. The Captains Room, the Mess Hall, damn near every Quarters, there are Windows everywhere. The only part of the ship that doesn't have windows would be the Nacelles, or so I believe.  

[Emi Uoza]

Se Ga Takai

Emi Uoza

I think the cloaking device doesn't make it actually invisible, just unseen by radar.
Making it invisible in space seems a little strange. It's not like federation ships are lined with windows.

They are, actually. The Captains Room, the Mess Hall, damn near every Quarters, there are Windows everywhere. The only part of the ship that doesn't have windows would be the Nacelles, or so I believe.

I was thinking of TOS. sweatdrop  

[Kristof Canada]

Looks like it's time to bust out some PHYSICS!

You're right that radio waves are an EM wave, just like every other form of light and radiation that's not alpha or beta (which are helium-4 nuclei and electrons, respectively). The Trek authors seem to forget this a lot, but I'll forgive them.

So, sure! If you can "shield" from one type of light, you can shield from radar as well. Militaries around the world have also developed some prototypes of things that are actually (semi-)invisible to radar and sonar. All that happens with radar is the light bounces off an object and comes back with a delay. It's just sonar with light.