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Posted: 6/11/2002 7:58:31 PM EDT
Link Posted: 6/11/2002 9:39:37 PM EDT
[#1]
Link Posted: 6/11/2002 9:45:42 PM EDT
[#2]
When you mention FTL, do you mean when we'll be able to TRAVEL faster than light or when we'll simply be able to PROPEL something.

'Cuz they were able to propel a subatomic particle faster than light (not MUCH faster) a while ago.

Anyway, to travel anywhere near the speed of light would require an extended period of acceleration (I'm not sure--like over a year).  Otherwise, the human wouldn't survive the acceleration.
Link Posted: 6/11/2002 9:48:13 PM EDT
[#3]
Quoted:
When you mention FTL, do you mean when we'll be able to TRAVEL faster than light or when we'll simply be able to PROPEL something.

'Cuz they were able to propel a subatomic particle faster than light (not MUCH faster) a while ago.

Anyway, to travel anywhere near the speed of light would require an extended period of acceleration (I'm not sure--like over a year).  Otherwise, [red]the human wouldn't survive the acceleration[/red].
View Quote


Ohhh, MAAA-NN!!
WHY NOT?!
Link Posted: 6/11/2002 9:49:29 PM EDT
[#4]
Link Posted: 6/11/2002 9:50:19 PM EDT
[#5]
After about 1 year of accelerating at 1 gravity you will be at .999 light...but, your spaceship would mass a thousand times more (due to Relativity)than when you started, and NO engine posesses that kind of thrust! It will never happen.
Link Posted: 6/11/2002 9:56:03 PM EDT
[#6]
I would imagine de-celeration would be an issue as well... we'll destroy ourselves before we figure this out
Link Posted: 6/11/2002 9:56:05 PM EDT
[#7]
The key is not to travel faster than light, but to make light travel slower than us.
Link Posted: 6/11/2002 9:59:52 PM EDT
[#8]
Link Posted: 6/11/2002 10:08:06 PM EDT
[#9]
Quoted:
The key is not to travel faster than light, but to [red]make light travel slower than us[/red].
View Quote


The drunkard said, "...let's break the door down!"
The marijuana smoker said, "...let's sleep until morning until they open the gate."
The Hashish smoker said, "...[i][blue]let us pass through the keyhole[/blue][/i]..."

It's all a matter of perception, Lloyd!!!
Link Posted: 6/11/2002 10:13:25 PM EDT
[#10]
It has already been accomplished. The astral body travels faster than light. All manner of manned and unmanned things have travelled faster than light throughout both this universe and others.

As to when--a very very long time ago.

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident." (Arthur Schopenhauer)
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 3:36:30 AM EDT
[#11]
So ahhhhhhhhhhh...how did Captain Kirk do it? [;D]
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 4:28:00 AM EDT
[#12]
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 5:29:10 AM EDT
[#13]
Quoted:
After about 1 year of accelerating at 1 gravity you will be at .999 light...but, your spaceship would mass a thousand times more (due to Relativity)than when you started, and NO engine posesses that kind of thrust! It will never happen.
View Quote



I won't say it can never happen because there are amny more things we don't understand about physics than we do understand and much of what we think we understand, we only understand in part.   Relativity, BTW, is only a theory, not a law.
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 5:46:19 AM EDT
[#14]
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 6:09:36 AM EDT
[#15]
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 6:12:21 AM EDT
[#16]
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 6:40:19 AM EDT
[#17]
Quoted:
Quoted:
So ahhhhhhhhhhh...how did Captain Kirk do it? [;D]
View Quote
All you do is say "Engage"!
View Quote



I don't see what all the debate is about...DoubleFeed aleady knew he answer [:D]
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 6:46:58 AM EDT
[#18]
Let's get our definitions in line here first.

First off, traveling faster than light in this universe is impossible, period. So the answer to the question as stated, is never.

Now, to the intended question, who knows, if ever. There is so much we don't understand about the universe, that it is impossible to say. Is it possible to somehow "warp" space so that a ship could, in essence, travel faster than light? Could a ship somehow utilize higher dimensions to get around the light speed limit?
Could human beings survive such twistings (we weren't even sure the heart could pump blood in zero G, hence monkeys and dogs were sent up first.)

Again, noone yet knows, and probably won't for a very long time.

-legrue
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 7:24:05 AM EDT
[#19]
The first problem is a power source. We do not have anything upto the task yet. Mobile fusion reactors anyone?
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 7:31:13 AM EDT
[#20]
Quoted:
Let's get our definitions in line here first.

First off, traveling faster than light in this universe is impossible, period. So the answer to the question as stated, is never.
View Quote


Not precisely true.  There are particles that travel faster than light.


Now, to the intended question, who knows, if ever. There is so much we don't understand about the universe, that it is impossible to say. Is it possible to somehow "warp" space so that a ship could, in essence, travel faster than light? Could a ship somehow utilize higher dimensions to get around the light speed limit?
Could human beings survive such twistings (we weren't even sure the heart could pump blood in zero G, hence monkeys and dogs were sent up first.)

Again, noone yet knows, and probably won't for a very long time.

-legrue
View Quote


Agreed fully
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 7:54:43 AM EDT
[#21]
Even if it can be done, and I have serious doubts, it won't be done for a long time. Resources are just too scarce. We just don't need FTL travel to live. No, it'd take a Star Trek-like utopian society to develop. Centuries from now if ever is my answer.
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 8:13:05 AM EDT
[#22]
How little faith you all have in Humanity, we will have FTL travel when someone wants it bad enough... Maybe not soon, but eventually.
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 8:25:51 AM EDT
[#23]
Quoted:
Quoted:
Let's get our definitions in line here first.

First off, traveling faster than light in this universe is impossible, period. So the answer to the question as stated, is never.
View Quote


Not precisely true.  There are particles that travel faster than light.

View Quote


Which ones? - I only heard once of information travelling faster than light, but that was proven wrong as the professor who stated actually anly measured a chirp and not the actuall light pulse. And you cannot transmit information in a chirp.
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 8:28:43 AM EDT
[#24]
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 9:07:46 AM EDT
[#25]
Some people were up late watching K-PAX, I see...
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 9:11:55 AM EDT
[#26]
Quoted:
How little faith you all have in Humanity, we will have FTL travel when someone wants it bad enough... Maybe not soon, but eventually.
View Quote


wants it bad enough?

I want to be a nubile 16 year old blonde cheerleader, but I tell ya, it AIN'T happening.

.
.
.
.
er, forget I said that.

-legrue
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 9:45:06 AM EDT
[#27]
I do not think that FTL travel is faster in the traditional sense, IE travling the actual distance in real space. I do think that we will develop methods around that, such as rendering a ship into a tachionic state by some how creting an artifical mass feild, or with a greater understanding of quantom mechaics somehow utilize the worm holes that exist in the quantom foam of quarks and lectons. I feal that it will be acomplished, like most inovations, throught some method that we are not yet familiar with, and will ocour unexpectedly.
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 11:25:08 AM EDT
[#28]
Quoted:
Not precisely true.  There are particles that travel faster than light.
View Quote
Which is also not precisely true.  Those particles exist only in theory, none has been confirmed experimentally.
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 11:26:12 AM EDT
[#29]
Quoted:
Tachyons.
View Quote
Which only exist in theory.
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 11:33:18 AM EDT
[#30]
Once again, Let me mention Miguel Alcubierre. When he gets us there, remember you heard about him here, from me....

Scott

Link Posted: 6/12/2002 12:18:51 PM EDT
[#31]
Just read the FAQ, then discuss it amongst yourselves...


[url]http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SpeedOfLight/FTL.html[/url]

TheRedGoat
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 12:58:46 PM EDT
[#32]
As speed increases so does time dilatation, mass and length decreases. As such, it becomes smaller and more massive, not larger. The graphs which describes these changes are hyperbolic-hence approach infinity as an object approaches light speed.
It is not possible to reach light speed according to laws of physics as we presently know them and this is the greatest impediment to FTL travel. Interestingly, it is also a great impediment to creatures from one solar system  interfering with another. Works out kinda nice, doesn't it?

Tachyons?Faster than light??? I think this is BS until proven otherwise, which it has not been.
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 3:08:41 PM EDT
[#33]


I think you are overlooking one important thing.

Our own galaxy is about 200,000 lightyears across.

Even at the speed of light, you would be dead for about 1,900 years before you crossed even 1% of the milkyway.

If you wanted to travel to just the nearest stars it would be practical.

But I would guess that the number of stars you could reach in a lifetime could probably be counted on both hands.

What fun would that be.

Forget FTL, I would invest my time in wormholes or something of the sort.
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 3:27:27 PM EDT
[#34]
FTL?  forget it.

transporter technology al la Star Trek is where it's at.  THAT would fundamentally change our world much more than FTL travel.  
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 3:47:30 PM EDT
[#35]
FTL travel is useless, we must develop wormholes of some type.  Even if we make it possible to travel three galaxies away in two weeks, physics informs us that the astronauts will return to be greeted by their great great great great grandchildren.


Basically, if FTL is possible, its' best use would be to transport one side of a wormhole to the location you want to travel.  Then you travel through the wormhole at reasonable speeds without all of the side effects of FTL travel.
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 4:00:24 PM EDT
[#36]
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 4:03:25 PM EDT
[#37]
Fools!!

It all has to do with vibration.

Wasn't it the Moody Blues that said "thinking is the best way to travel".

Its possible some people already travel to different universes'. Don't think they do it by propelling themselves faster than the speed of light.
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 4:24:14 PM EDT
[#38]
Quoted:
Quoted:
Let's get our definitions in line here first.

First off, traveling faster than light in this universe is impossible, period. So the answer to the question as stated, is never.

Now, to the intended question, who knows, if ever. There is so much we don't understand about the universe, that it is impossible to say. Is it possible to somehow "warp" space so that a ship could, in essence, travel faster than light? Could a ship somehow utilize higher dimensions to get around the light speed limit?
Could human beings survive such twistings (we weren't even sure the heart could pump blood in zero G, hence monkeys and dogs were sent up first.)

Again, noone yet knows, and probably won't for a very long time.

-legrue
View Quote

Traveling faster than the speed of light in space-time is impossible. There are ways around that. Alcubierre's warp theory is just one of the emerging possibilities.
View Quote

Wasn't there just an experiment published recently (within a year or so) that demonstrated that, under certain circumstances, a composite material could be constructed such that if a photon (or laser) is directed at it, the beam of light would enter one side and then actually EXIT the other side faster than it took the light beam to cover that physical difference?


Or was that just some type of epiphenomenon of the composite used?
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 4:27:56 PM EDT
[#39]
Quoted:
Again, noone yet knows,
View Quote

Is that Peter Noone your referring to?? [:D]

Link Posted: 6/12/2002 5:03:59 PM EDT
[#40]
It will 25 years from Feb. 29 2000 that man will launch their first ftl unmanned ship. It will have been constructed through a international space agency formed by the UN. It will travel to Orion belt and back. Upon it return a malfunction will occur. Sending the ship through the moon. Which is then split into three parts, that then strike the earth. At this point the earths population decides it really doesn't like the UN. But realizes this to late. Every living thing on earth is vaporized.

P.S.
Electricity already travels faster than light. Electron theory (although not a law can not be disproved) states that a magnetic field pushes one electron from the valance shelf of an atom out of its orbit into the next atoms valance shelf. Which in turn pushes one of its electrons out of its orbit, so on and so forth. If you were to string both an electrical circuit and a fiber optic line around the earth three times, attached a light bulb to the end of the electrical circuit and a power source to the other. Then shot a beam of light down the fiber and turned on the power to the circuit at the same time the bulb would turn on before the fiber light could get to the opposite end.
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 5:11:27 PM EDT
[#41]
Quoted:
It will 25 years from Feb. 29 2000 that man will launch their first ftl unmanned ship. It will have been constructed through a international space agency formed by the UN. It will travel to Orion belt and back. Upon it return a malfunction will occur. Sending the ship through the moon. Which is then split into three parts, that then strike the earth. At this point the earths population decides it really doesn't like the UN. But realizes this to late. Every living thing on earth is vaporized.

P.S.
Electricity already travels faster than light. Electron theory (although not a law can not be disproved) states that a magnetic field pushes one electron from the valance shelf of an atom out of its orbit into the next atoms valance shelf. Which in turn pushes one of its electrons out of its orbit, so on and so forth. If you were to string both an electrical circuit and a fiber optic line around the earth three times, attached a light bulb to the end of the electrical circuit and a power source to the other. Then shot a beam of light down the fiber and turned on the power to the circuit at the same time the bulb would turn on before the fiber light could get to the opposite end.
View Quote


Electricity travels slightly slower than light, not faster.
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 5:14:48 PM EDT
[#42]
Quoted:
I would imagine de-celeration would be an issue as well... we'll destroy ourselves before we figure this out
View Quote


Easy solution.  Accelerate as fast as you can to the midpoint on your journey.  Once there, turn the ship in the opposite direction and decelerate the rest of the trip.  Arthur C. Clark wrote about this in the book 2061.
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 6:28:06 PM EDT
[#43]
No FTL for a while. With all of our theoretical knowledge to date, only a ship with a Warp drive of some sort can "Cheat" that ultimate speed barrier. The key to FTL is bypassing the speed of light and warping space.

Gravity wells = warped space. You'll need at least one graviton generator in the front that pulls space towards the vehicle and one in the rear that expands it. That way, the vehicle could travel at speeds many time slower than the speed of light within that warp "bubble" but travel faster than light, for all practical purposes, outside the bubble.

Worm holes and folding space are other options but will require objects or "gates" at both ends to ensure a stable exit point. Otherwise you could possibly end up anywhere in the universe. And how are these exit gates going to get there with out a warp capable ship to get them there? Back to top.
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 6:32:51 PM EDT
[#44]
No
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 7:17:43 PM EDT
[#45]
I haven't studied this stuff, and maybe I'm just plain stupid, but why exactly is the speed of light so magical?  It's just a certain speed, I fail to see how at some time, way in the future we couldn't propel something that fast.  All this theory stuff about it being impossible to go that fast makes no sense to me.  

Why would mega speed change the shape/size/mass or whatever of an object?  It's just a speed, if something is strong enough to handle the forces of the acceleration and other similar forces acting on it why would these other things happen?  Sounds to me like some super smart guy pulling stuff out of his ass with no real idea or proof of such things.  But then again I don't put much faith into very many scientific theories...
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 7:44:02 PM EDT
[#46]
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 8:03:26 PM EDT
[#47]
Quoted:
Quoted:
Once again, Let me mention Miguel Alcubierre. When he gets us there, remember you heard about him here, from me....

Scott

View Quote
Who is this guy?  Got a link?
View Quote


Mr. Alcubierre is a scientist at the Wales University in Cardiff. He has a pretty good theory already. Just needs to get to the application stage.

For everyone,

The concept of FTL is in the "faster Than..." part. Sure, Alpha Centauri is still a smidge over four years away at C. But if we can travel at say 16C, then it would only be about three months away. The whole idea is, hopefully once we break C, we can go [b]MUCH[/b] faster than C....

Scott

Link Posted: 6/12/2002 8:09:07 PM EDT
[#48]
[url]http://www.google.com[/url]

[url]http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&q=Miguel+Alcubierre&btnG=Google+Search[/url]

At the moment, none of the links are working for me, but my computer has been icky on me all evening...

Scott

Link Posted: 6/12/2002 8:09:49 PM EDT
[#49]
Link Posted: 6/12/2002 8:10:01 PM EDT
[#50]
He who hesitates is frost. - Eskimo proverb
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