When it comes to the modern world, Nikola Tesla might be responsible for… everything? It feels like the answer is everything, but at the very least we can thank Tesla for almost everything. From alternating current, X-rays, and lasers, to electric motors, remote controls, and wireless communications, his inventions and contributions to science rise to a level few humans have ever come close to approaching. It’s almost unfathomable when you realize just how much the technology we rely on every day to make the world a better place is partly because of just one brilliant man.
Not to mention thanks to him we got this awesome lightning shooting gun that looks like a real life Ghostbusters proton pack.
This video is from Dustin of the YouTube channel SmarterEveryDay, and while trying to better understand Tesla coils (you’ve seen them in action before, probably at a science museum, those huge machines that generate enclosed purple lightning shows), he found someone who is not only an expert at building them, but who just so happens to own one of the world’s few Tesla coil handheld guns.
Oh. My. Science.
Our science-fiction loving brains can barely handle seeing this in action. Forget the obvious Ghostbusters/proton pack connection, or the fact that it looks like it was stolen from any number of video games, we’re wondering if we can use it to go chasing down Arnold Schwarzenegger like we’re Dynamo.
Or maybe not. We know Nikola Tesla intended for his inventions to help humanity, not to be used in a dystopian society’s murder-filled reality game show.
But he probably had no idea we’d turn his Tesla coil into the world’s coolest gun either, so he probably wouldn’t be too upset with us.
What item from pop culture does this remind you off? Fire up your thoughts in our comments below.
Images: SmarterEveryDay
