Speed of light

[Supreme Cmdr]

quote:

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Ouch! That hurts , I didn't spend 5 years in the University (+4 more to get my PhD) just to get close to being a Physicist.

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Well then, there you have it. OK, ladies, listen to the man.

[Whisper]

Before I move on to the topic, I'd just like to say something about Damas, whom I've had the pleasure to work with for several years: If he ever psots something that was not intened to be off the wall, silly, and outrageuosly illogical, someone has hacked into his account 'cause it ain't Damas that's posting!

Topic: My understanding of realitivity is that if any ship attempted to reach the speed of light, it would require infinite (there's that "i" word again!) fuel, would have infinite mass, and anyone insdie would get crushed into an rather thin film of grease.

Now what Aramike said about something needing to achive the properties of light to go that fast is true, but not very useful in terms of travel. If an object could achive the same properties of light, it WOULD be light, and particles don't make very good sailboats.

With this "warp drive" I mentioned, as the hypothosis goes, the negative energy bubble would create a seperation between the outside and inside of the, er, field. The inside would act a little like its own little universe, and doesn't interact with ours. By that I mean traveling really (+FTL) fast in this universe would have no affect on the "mini-verse" inside the bubble. The best way to picture it (from what I understand) is like traveling in a car: even though the outside is moving real fast and winds is blowing this way and that, the passengers in the car don't feel anything. If one would read the wind as being such forces as gravity and intertia, and the car is this "warp drive" thing, perhaps this is the general idea of negative energy travel.

Tac- So what if I have the Star Trek orginal tech manual, Next Generation tech manual, and the blueprints for Picard's Enterprise, as well as models of all the Enterprises and Voyager, and could quote any episode from any series besides DS9 (which is evil)? Does that really make me a Trekker?

[Guest aramike01]

Whisper, the only probem would then be that the ship would not actually travel through Einstienian space because the laws of such would prevent any matter to attain the speed of light or faster. What would probably have to occur for matter to travel FTL would be the transistion of matter to energy then that process reversed when it arrives at it's destination. Or, to use popular science fiction principles, it could enter a sort of "sub-space" that wouldn't be governed by physical principles.

Such a phenomena may actually exist; I know there was some talk about that not too long ago. I'll look it up and get back to you.

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Cmdr. Michael Kristophers

Spectre Fleet

Commanding Officer, Spectre StarStation

ICV-Intrepid

Recruitment Officer

"You won't get the Purple Heart hiding in a foxhole!"

[Whisper]

You're looking that up, but I'd just like to throw this in. I may be wrong, but the negative energy would create a...let me put it this way. The hypothetical car would be traveling through the air. The air on the outside is the same on the inside (read: physical laws and nature), but the car has a barrier of metal (read: negative energy). SO the "outside" and "inside" are exactly the same, it's just the stuff in between that makes everything screwy.

[Hector Socas Navarro]

Sure, you can build that car with the negative stuff or with a hyper-engine jumping into another dimension. It can travel faster than light ... as long as it does not carry any information in it! Therefore, the car would work only if the driver is dumber than my Combat Officer

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See you out there, among the stars

Cmdr Nava, GCV Nemesis (Official BC3k tester)

[Whisper]

Good point, Hector. Guess that "car" still needs a little more time in the "shop", eh?

[Supreme Cmdr]

LOL!! That was too funny Hector. Paul's not going to be very amused.

[Hector Socas Navarro]

quote:

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Guess that "car" still needs a little more time in the "shop", eh?

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I think so

You know, most sci-fi aficionados tend to be upset about the limitation imposed by the speed of light. I don't. I kinda like the relativistic description of the universe. First because it warrantees that the universe will always be huge, vast and virtually infinite. There will always be space for the explorers to go "where nobody else has ever been". Think of how fast our little Earth has shrunk in the past centuries because of the technological development. And second because, despite what many people may think, it makes a lot of sense.

Some people think that the speed of light imposes a limitation on how far you can go. But that's not true. In principle there's nothing that prevents you from travelling to the Andromeda galaxy (which is about 2E6 light-years away) and come back in less than one year (ship time). Then again don't expect to find your girlfriend waiting for you at the spaceport when you come back to Earth because you'll have been away for 4E6 years (Earth time).

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See you out there, among the stars

Cmdr Nava, GCV Nemesis (Official BC3k tester)

[Whisper]

And that's why we're upset. Think about how many episodes of Star Trek we'd miss!