+

When the logic board fried on my MacBook Pro at work, it was replaced with a brand-new, Thunderbolt-equipped, 15” MacBook Pro. Anyone have one of these? Here’s what I can’t figure out: The little white light in the front that pulses when the MBPro is asleep appears to be shining straight through the aluminum unibody. There’s no cutout: When the computer is off or the light pulses off, there’s just seamless aluminum. Turn the computer on or watch the light pulse on, and—again—it is pulsing right through what appears to be aluminum.

Last I knew, the only time anyone created transparent aluminum was Scotty (via a classic Mac) in that really bad Star Trek movie with the whales. Does anyone out there know if, indeed, the light is shining through the aluminum, and if so, how Apple pulled that off? Or how they managed to make it just look like the light’s shining through the aluminum?

Polishing definitions:

transparent = not opaque to the frequency generated by the light source.  So, mixing and matching light frequencies and materials is what we are looking for.    If the aluminum is very thin at the location, and something else fills the gaps, then that could be one way.

okay, everyone—let’s find the real answer.

+

I gave the “if the aluminum is very thin” thing a thought, but here’s the problem with that: Go into your kitchen and tear off a sheet of aluminum foil. That’s really, really thin aluminum. But no light can get through it.

I’ve repeatedly dragged a fingernail over the light, trying to feel a seam. Nope, it’s seamless. It almost looks like CGI: The light’s there, then it disappears leaving behind solid aluminum, kind of like the repulsers appearing and disappearing on Iron Man’s hands.

Weird. I can’t figure this out.

there are a series of small holes get a magnifying glass