Posted on 01/08/2006 10:10:46 AM PST by billorites
If it solves the equations it means the formula is correct, but it doesn't mean that the theory behind it is too. The equation e=mc^2 was around years before Einstein came up with relativity. The guy who came up with it though didn't understand why it worked and Einstein did.
It's really not too surprising that someone came up with e=mc^2, since the standard formula for energy is e=mv^2.
pimf
spaghettifcation=spaghettification (I think!)
Geez, no kidding. My head hurts.
Thanks for the ping!
That's true. The famous equation was being tossed around as a result of experiments up to that time. That so much popped out of the relativity method was encouraging in some ways.
but didn't he also reject his own theories that would have required the "dark matter" that we now accept to be the most plausable scenario?
The problem with science fiction is that it has an annoying history of becoming science fact. I believe that hyperdrive is possible. We can develop the engine - the question is, can we develop the materials necessary to protect the occupants of a vehicle that would be propelled by a hyperdrive engine?
I smell a patent.
The nice thing about all this, is there is a proposed expermiment that can be done to test the theorys.
Even if its a million to once chance, I think its worth doing that experiment. The benefits are obvious if the theory holds water. The test is not a waste even if its negative. Thats the whole point of experimenting, learing what works, what doesnt.
The Wright brothers did the same thing. Testing and experimenting on something that others thought impossible.
And those first steps and efforts led to us walking on the moon only seven decades later. From zero powered flight to moonwalking, contained within a single century. Wow.
There are still great leaps to come.
"Penetrating so many secrets, we cease to believe in the unknowable. But there it sits nevertheless, calmly licking its chops." -H. L. Mencken
Hopefully they brought their towels!
Saturn rockets were in development in 1957?
Close enough. Don't forget that the rocket which launched the Moon landing in 1969 was the Saturn *V*, the fifth in a series of various rockets in the Saturn program, and 1957 was only 12 years before that.
The link says:
August 15, 1958: Wernher von Braun and his team in Huntsville, Ala. received an assignment to develop a heavy launcher, later designated Saturn-1.Von Braun was probably doing design and proposal work for most of a year before he finally got the official go-ahead, so saying that he was working on the program in 1957 isn't implausible. Or at most, the article was just off by a year.
[A bit of Googling later:] Ah, here we go:
The Saturn I was United States' first large clustered rocket. Its tanks were derived from the Jupiter and Redstone missile tanks, and its first stage engines were derived from those of the SM-64 Navaho missile. An earlier version of the H-1 engine was also used by the Thor and Jupiter IRBM's. It was conceived in April 1957 by Dr. Wernher von Braun and the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) clustered launch vehicle for carrying manned and unmanned space payloads with a thrust of 1.5 million lbf (6.7 MN). Initial plans called for 30 research and development flights between 1958 and 1963.The final production run however, resulted in the launch of only 10 Saturn I vehicles. The program along with ABMA personnel were transferred to NASA in 1960. The Saturn I started out in April 1957 as a heavy lift concept called the Juno V by the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency. It was later renamed the Saturn in February 1959.
I believe you're missing something here...
What's more, the US military has begun to cast its eyes over the hyperdrive concept, and a space propulsion researcher at the US Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories has said he would be interested in putting the idea to the test.
One was done and completed by the Wright Brothers. Private individuals using their own capital without any major help from a government organization. The other is being suggested by not one, but two, arms of the government. Which means it will come in overcost, far past the due date, and more than likely be a failure if it is ever tested. Of course 20 years after that fact, a private company may look at it again and achieve success at a fraction of the cost..
Good thing they stopped renaming the thing. One more change in the direction they were going and it would have been embarrassing.
Yes Wright bros were private industry.
But going to the moon wasnt accomplished without government.
And like the Wrights, Heims theory came from one person, not government.
Good thing they stopped renaming the thing. One more change in the direction they were going and it would have been embarrassing.
I believe you're talking out Uranus.
Meanwhile, from a "Futurama" episode:
Fry: Did you build the Smellescope?
Farnsworth: No, I remembered that I'd built one last year. Go ahead. Try it. You'll find that every heavenly body has its own particular scent. Here, I'll point it at Jupiter.
[Fry sniffs.]
Fry: Smells like strawberries.
Farnsworth: Exactly! And now Saturn.
[Fry sniffs.]
Fry: Pine needles. Oh, man, this is great! Hey, as long as you don't make me smell Uranus.
[He laughs.]
Leela: I don't get it.
Farnsworth: I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all.
Fry: Oh. What's it called now?
Farnsworth: Urectum.
The astronauts didn't mind traveling on the Saturn, but taking a ride on something named Uranus ... somehow it's not appropriate for fighter pilots.
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