Posted on 02/18/2010 3:22:11 PM PST by Para-Ord.45
Star Trek fans, prepare to be disappointed. Kirk, Spock and the rest of the crew would die within a second of the USS Enterprise approaching the speed of light.
The problem lies with Einstein's special theory of relativity. It transforms the thin wisp of hydrogen gas that permeates interstellar space into an intense radiation beam that would kill humans within seconds and destroy the spacecraft's electronic instruments.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
One can only hope.
They miss the obvious. Light speed isn’t diddly in space travel. Just to get to Proxima Centauri, the star nearest to Earth, at 4.243 light years, at the speed of light takes, obviously, 4.243 years.
Enter speed of light doubling. Round off the distance to 4 light years, and at twice the speed of light it takes 2 years, four times the speed of light just 1 year, eight times the speed of light, six months....
32,786 times the speed of light, 1 hr and 8 minutes. About. Just to get to a star that is “right next door.”
But now the good news. Welcome to the world of tachyons.
Tachyons are theoretical faster than light particles. Theoretical because they have never been observed, or observed interacting with slower than light particles. That is, nothing has ever been observed going faster than light.
But they may have some very interesting properties, if they do exist.
For example, to reach the speed of light, a particle must gain an amazing amount of energy. But as soon as it crosses to a faster than light speed, instead of being the fastest slower than light particle, it becomes the *slowest* tachyon.
It cannot take on any more energy, so theoretically again, to keep going even faster, it has to give up energy. It no longer needs energy to accelerate. It has to give up energy to accelerate. Thus the fastest tachyons have very little energy at all.
So once a spaceship is going faster than light, the more it brakes, the faster it goes. It only needs a huge amount of energy to slow down enough to go back to slower than light speeds.
You obviously don't understand warp drive physics.
You really need to read up on your Zefram Cochrane.
Which is called GENERAL Theory of Relativity. The SPECIAL Theory of Relativity is in relation to velocity.
Excellent, just excellent presentation of the facts. You are absolutely correct in your math... thanks for posting a really amazing synopsis of relativity fact.
Lol!
WOW!
I’ll be damned!
Beam me up Scotty. lol
wormholes people!!
warp speed is not the speed of light now is it...
it is more like the Warp bubble of Alcubierre drive....if that is possible..
Cavitation of spacetime ... inside the bubble remains stable.
Excellent! ... And a photon remains in the present of where it was generated, never wavering into the future or into the past as a photon, thus it crosses the universe in no time lapse for the photon. Could we then say that the photon is ‘carrying’ a bit of time in itself thus it is in ‘cavitation’ to the universe around it?
She always reminded me of a praying mantis and I thought she liked girls only.
I thought Tachyons were obscene. Aren’t they used by strippers?
Yes, the 'Trekkie's' understanding of what "Warp Five" meant :o)
Of course not, that was way too slow for the Federation's business!
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