Re: The Speed Of Light isn't the universal speed limit after
Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 9:11 pm
I'm not sure Walnuts can fall 50m sideways though. Do you have squirrels or similar?
For information and discussion about Oolite.
https://bb.oolite.space/
I think it's no coincidence that Portal was also available for free download during the time of Eric's observations...Smivs wrote:I'm not sure Walnuts can fall 50m sideways though. Do you have squirrels or similar?
But there's no known way of inducing and projecting a gravity field unattached to a corresponding mass (let alone projecting one faster than light) – so a gravity sled which lets you travel FTL sounds pretty fake to me ...CommonSenseOTB wrote:No fakedrives, just using gravity(which I believe is infinitely powerful) to pull the ship across the threshold of the speed of light. Are you saying that an object moving at the earth's escape velocity and moving towards it won't at any point have a velocity greater than the earth's escape velocity? My example was only to show that breaking the "light barrier" might be possible, if only for a brief moment. And if that's possible then a workaround could be found, eventually. Until we try, how can we know? Now, if only there were a way to break the "thought barrier" entrenched in nearly all learned men. I leave you with some words of wisdom from the master.
http://youtu.be/FDezrybpuO8
I know, but I'm a medieval historian (worse, one who's recently back from the pub ...).DaddyHoggy wrote:It's even more mind-bendingly complicated than that.
Semi-drunken medieval historians 1; Stone-cold sober contrabandistas 0;Disembodied wrote:I know, but I'm a medieval historian (worse, one who's recently back from the pub... I can sort of wrap my head around time dilation
Neutrinos, however, there seem to care less and have an average of 60 billionths of a second before their destination. Although a rather simple measurement is concerned, outside of CERN physicists to keep in mind that their colleagues are the victims of a systematic measurement error. The weakest link is likely the generation of the neutrinos, for which a target-plate is shot with heavy particles (protons). This has some uncertainty in the timing of the neutrinos ejected. Ironically, this time is established using GPS measurements, a system that is accurate owes to the theory of relativity. We are now waiting for the results of similar measurements in the U.S. and Japan are held. Only when also showing that neutrinos move faster than light, scientists will really begin to doubt the theory of special relativity.
Since you mentioned straightforward acceleration, you might find this interesting . . .Disembodied wrote:The conclusion that the ability to move faster than light would bugger up causality, of course, isn't a guarantee that you can't go faster than light... straightforward acceleration seems to be out, given the whole mass-increase thing, but maybe there are ways around that ...
Ultimately though one major issue with FTL in "real space" – i.e. no wormholes or space warps – is that travel at lightspeed is instantaneous, from the traveller's frame of reference. As soon as you hit lightspeed, you get to wherever you want to go, whether that's Pluto, Alpha Centauri or the edge of the observable universe 14 billion light-years away, immediately. In the frame of reference of an observer on Earth, your journey is taking 5 hours, 4 years or 14 billion years, but as far as the ship's crew is concerned, it takes no time at all. So travelling in "real space" faster than light means reaching your destination sooner than instantaneously ... which is a bit of a logical conundrum to add onto the technological and technical hurdles (like the vast amounts of shielding required to protect the ship from the effects of ploughing through the interstellar medium at even fairly modest fractions of c).m4r35n357 wrote:The technological hurdles are still immense bordering on impossible, but it's better than "no way" I reckon.
Hehe!Thargoid wrote:"We don't allow faster than light particles in here, get out!" said the bartender.
A neutrino walks into a bar.
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Well I think you understand that I believe that nothing with rest mass will EVER reach light speed, and I don't have the slightest problem with thatDisembodied wrote:Ultimately though one major issue with FTL in "real space" – i.e. no wormholes or space warps – is that travel at lightspeed is instantaneous, from the traveller's frame of reference. As soon as you hit lightspeed, you get to wherever you want to go, whether that's Pluto, Alpha Centauri or the edge of the observable universe 14 billion light-years away, immediately. In the frame of reference of an observer on Earth, your journey is taking 5 hours, 4 years or 14 billion years, but as far as the ship's crew is concerned, it takes no time at all. So travelling in "real space" faster than light means reaching your destination sooner than instantaneously ... which is a bit of a logical conundrum to add onto the technological and technical hurdles (like the vast amounts of shielding required to protect the ship from the effects of ploughing through the interstellar medium at even fairly modest fractions of c).
Brilliant!Thargoid wrote:"We don't allow faster than light particles in here, get out!" said the bartender.
A neutrino walks into a bar.
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It's an interesting article, definitely! There's a lot more of that kind of material on the Atomic Rockets webpage:m4r35n357 wrote:Well I think you understand that I believe that nothing with rest mass will EVER reach light speed, and I don't have the slightest problem with that
But some eternal optimists are clinging to the hope that some way will be found . . . it won't.
The relativistic rocket is a great way of understanding the fundamental limitations of space travel, like say Shannon's limit in communications.
Seriously folks, read the article, and discover how to get to Andromeda in less than 30 years WITHOUT breaking the "light barrier"!
Oh dearDisembodied wrote:There's a lot more of that kind of material on the Atomic Rockets webpage:
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/
To get to the other side.
Why did the neutrino cross the Alps?