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Original post by Edward Ropple Hm. That slipped my mind when I mentioned him. I read 3001 a pretty long time ago. I probably should again.
It might strike you as if I don't think FTL is possible, and that's true.
I guess I'm not so much arguing the possibility as the plausibility. Take the inertia-less drive, for instance. Admittedly, it's likely impossible, but it's certainly plausible (did it destroy your suspension of disbelief when reading 3001? It didn't destroy mine.) Time travel is likely impossible, but I think it's plausible enough for a story. (HG Wells' Time Machine for instance)
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Things that are very similar to FTL (hyperspace) may be possible, but if you stipulate FTL as possible, then you open up a can of worms that answers can't be given for.
And Einstein and friends opened a can of worms when they tried to explain things with a universal speed limit of c. I'll freely admit that modern physics cannot give the answers, but, then again, I think it's probable that modern physics isn't the final answer.
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Why doesn't time dilation screw up your time tracks when you pass c? How can you get the energy to pass c in the first place (assuming that general relativity does exist, and if it doesn't you'd have some really hefty problems to negotiate)? And so on.
The somewhat silly answer is "If I knew that, I'd be rich". A better answer might be that general relativity is a better approximation than kinematics, but is likely still an approximation. The problems to negotiate shouldn't be any greater than those that Einstein had to deal with.
EDIT: missed in / in one of the closing tags
[edited by - Way Walker on July 29, 2003 6:05:58 PM]
As I understand Relativity, speed goes something like this:
Every particle in the universe has 4 speeds. It''s X speed, it''s Y speed, it''s Z speed, and it''s T speed. These 4 speeds occur in parallel, meaning that you can move on all 4 dimensional axis concurrently, this all should make sense. The sum total of these 4 speeds is always C. X+Y+Z+T=C When you change your speed on any one of the variables, the others suffer based on how the particle interacts with forces. Like, travelling on the Z and getting hit from the side increases the X and Y, and maybe slows down the Z a bit. Anyways, when the three space variable are changed uniformly, T automatically adjusts, altering the particle''s rate of interaction with other particles. Since the rate of interaction is altered, the propogation of forces is changed, and stuff like intertial mass and volume of a group of particles changes. (This idea of the alteration of time has been supported by the Clock-On-Ground, Clock-On-Plane experiements, but NOT proved.)
Anyways, the reason Science says that Light is the speed barrier on the universe is that if X Y and Z are all increased so that T is reduced to 0, the particles stop all interaction with other particles, which means the particles cease to exist in the traditional sense. Once you don''t exist anymore, its hard to get any faster.
This is all just my understanding of it, I''m probably wrong, and the whole X+Y+Z+T=C thing is just a simplification of whats actually going on, not the actual formula, which is more along the lines of C=sqroot(E/M), but you can convert E into Speed and Mass, etc. etc. Never mind that.
Point is, this is all theoretical, not proved. Its always easy to just assume its false. If your future history wants to, cite a date it was disproven.
Interestingly enough, there has been some theoretical work on "warp drive" that suggest it''d be possible (if unpractical). I forget the scientist''s name, and the NASA advanced propulsion site I used to go to for references was taken down a couple years ago probably to prevent Osama from building hyperspace missiles to deliver Saddam''s antimatter bombs...
How about a "Dark Drive" (Just thaught up this method while watching Quantum Physics show) Ok, you have several chunks of Dark Matter, arranged in a ring. Dark Matter is so dense, it bends space itself, so you have the Dark Matter in an arrangement so that space is bent in a complete circle. Then, anything you put through it would accelerate around in a circle indefinately until you exerted a small ammount of force to deflect it out of the bend, and the longer its in the Circular path, the more time it has to accelerate. So you just shoot some flame or energy through the engine, and it would accelerate, and then you create a Diversion system, propulsioning whatever is looping out of it and behind you, creating propulsion... Also, it would Suck in any surrounding light, working as a cloaking device as well :-D This is improbable at the moment in real physics, but once we do find Dark Matter, it will make Intersellar Space Travel possible :-D
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Original post by D_JildQuantum ...dark matter as a sling shot...
Assuming dark matter actually exists, which is far from certain (though not a problem for a game). Of course, the greater problem is that this still only provides sub-light speeds.
[/offtopic] Actually, they have now proven that dark matter exists. Some astronomer found the exact Light Bendature that the gravitational Pull of a chunk of dark matter would create passing over a group of stars. Its sort of like passing a lense over a light: It Makes it brighter, then it decreases. [/offtopic]
[ontopic] Hmmm... Ill keep thinking. When i come up with an idea for Space Travel, ill post it here [/ontopic]
There is one aspect about relativity that I always found interesting when I learned it. A photon, which travels at the speed of light, travels instantly between any two points in space no matter how far away they are form eachother. So while to us on Earth it seems like light from distance stars takes millions of years to arrive, to the object traveling at the speed of light it has instantly traversed an almost infinite distance.
I believe the explanation is that if you are traveling at the speed of light you are using all your space time units up in speed and none in time so that no time passes by as you move.
----Jemts"A Hooloovoo is a super-intelligent shade of the color blue."- Douglas Adams
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Original post by jemts I believe the explanation is that if you are traveling at the speed of light you are using all your space time units up in speed and none in time so that no time passes by as you move.
Yup. Which means that, since matter requires at least /something/ for its time "STU" (space-time units - what an acronym), matter ceases to exist. Or something similar...I''m lacking in sleep and caffeine.
If theoretically you could accelerate past the speed of light without your electrons escaping or crushing into the protons to form neutrons, i''ve been informed that you''d observe the following effect.
The univere would be come a rainbow as light red-shifted. In front of you, light would be blue, behind red. Since you''re going faster then light, the positions of stars would appear to rewind behind you, but fast forward in front of you.
Now, it is important to note, its only been proven that light travels at C. It has never been PROVEN that you can''t exceed light speed. Einstien formulaes fall apart for absolute speeds faster then light, which unless you believe Einstein was god himself, means that the formulas could just be wrong.
