Indeed Captain
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 ...
:-)
I bet they had a guy in a red shirt scrape the bugs off of the windshield.
I dunno .. I’m still pondering over the concept of “clear aluminum”.
Time dilation on the ship close to the speed of light would make only ten years pass for the crew.
Yeah, you need at least Warp 9 ... :-) ... Post #52
10 years is still a long time to listen to the kids whining “Are we there yet?”
It wouldn't take 10 years; you can use Warp 9 ... :-) ... Post #52
The faster an object’s velocity; the slower time passes. This is called Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity and has been proven to be true innumerable times by comparing atomic clocks. Perfectly synchronized atomic clocks will show differences if one is placed on a plane. The one that travelled, even at a modest subsonic speed, will show a slower time.
This happens every day in particle accelerators. Sub-atomic particles with lifespans in the nanoseconds can last hundreds, even thousands of times longer when they are travelling close to the speed of light.
It is easy to figure out the time dilation experienced by traveling objects. Divide the velocity of the object by the speed of light and square the results. Subtract the result from one and square root it. The final result will be the amount of slowing of time of the traveling object. For example, if an astronaut on a spaceship left earth at a constant velocity of 90% the speed of light (.9c) to a planet 10 light-years away, his velocity would be 270,000 kps and should be divided by the speed of light (300,000 kps) which comes out to .9. Square it (.9 x .9) = .81. Subtract from one (1 - .81) = .19. Get its square root = .4359. The Time Dilation of the spaceship = .4359, meaning, for the 10 light-year trip, the astronaut only experiences 43.59% of time that people on earth would experience. For the ten light-year trip, the astronaut only experiences the duration of the trip to last 4.359 years, whereas ten years would’ve passed on the earth.
To reiterate, the closer an object approaches the speed of light; the slower time passes for it. It is certainly possible for a spaceship to travel 50,000 light years and only experience 10 years subjective time. Heck, it’s possible for a spaceship to travel across the entire universe of billions of light years and only experience a split second of time, if they are just a trillionth of a percentage below light speed.
Ah!
It’s logarithmic, it seems.
So Warp Factor 7 or 8 would do nicely, and get you there in 1 to 5 years.
I got confused trying to do the math, converting everything into parsecs, until I realized that that was the wrong space movie series.
“Huh? If it takes light 50,000 years to make this distance, how are people going to do it in 10? Am I missing something? “
Yes you are, as are the folks who wrote the article. You don’t actually go the speed of light, you travel through a worm hole...
Hell, I had a ‘68 Chevelle SS396 that could do Warp 6 in 14 seconds.
Hee hee hee... especially cherry!
LLS
LOL! That was my first thought.
But somebody still has to put a receiving stargate at each destination world for the system to work.
Still not happy with SGU though.
Right!! Everybody knows that!!!!
Actually, it certainly is possible to travel close to the speed of light without subjecting the astronauts to fatal doses of radiation.
This is done by having an intense magnetic field that deflects the atoms in front of the starship. If this is projected far enough and is strong enough; virtually all particles will be redirected along the lines of magnetic force.
The shield will cause starship designs to be nonlinear, to keep the habitable sections away from the magnetic poles of the field, but that’s just engineering. After all, if the earth’s magnetic field shields us from harmful radiation; so too with a smaller, but much stronger field shield a starship.
Indeed Captain
Yes indeed. And Dr. Beverly Crusher was easy on the eyes too.
But her son Wesley (Weasely) ought to have been airlocked BattleStar Galactica style.
That's not the only effect, though. Increased gravity also slows down time, so a clock down at sea level, closer to the center of the Earth, would have a tendency to run slower than one at high altitude, partially canceling out the relativistic effect of motion.
You're an optimist. I feel pretty confident that near instant acceleration to lightspeed would leave something like a very hot steam room where the room is filled with reddish-pink steam.
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