This keeps bugging me.
If someone were to invent a transporter (as in "Beam me up, Scotty!"), not for use between earth and spaceships, but from place to place on earth -- effectively replacing car, plane and train travel, or even bicycles or walking -- would there be massive collisions of people's energy? What happens to the "beam" as it travels? Does it occupy physical space? How does it get from A to B? If another "beam" going from C to D intersects the first "beam," do both beams make it to their respective destinations intact?
The only relatable event I can think of is a flashlight beam intersecting a ray of sunshine. They don't seem to interact, except perhaps to create slightly more intense heat at the points where they cross. So maybe Jill can get to the top of the hill without switching noses with Jack who's going across the hill. I mean, think about the possible consequences -- people could show up where they were going having all sorts of extra limbs, or many fewer limbs, or maybe just a heap of muscle and organs. Ew.
If that happens, wouldn't people have to "beam" themselves around like cell phone signals: be sent up to satellites and then to their Earth destinations, to avoid traffic congestion?
On the other hand, if they don't interact and people could send themselves directly from New York to Mexico City, doesn't energy expend itself somewhat in travel? So would people arrive at their destinations microscopically shorter?
Obviously it's been a long, long time since I took physics. I should go hunting through one of my old textbooks, but it's boxed up somewhere in the garage keeping its theoretical secrets from me.
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