The possibilitys of Faster then Light travel.

[I.R Joey]

I know alot of us are Science Fiction fans so I want to know what you guys think. Do you beleive we could ever develop a technology that could proppel us faster then 186,000 miles per second. Einsteins theory of relativity kinda slaps our hopes of a literal speed up to lightspeed through normal means thing, but I believe that through manipulating space itself one could propel themselves along, on the preverbial starship we all see so much on screen. You technically wouldn't be moving faster then light, you'd be making space move you. Kinda like how someone sitting in a race car wouldn't be moving themselves at 100mph, but allowing the vehicle to do it.

[Psycho Fox]

Well I have to say I have thought of this and I am somewhat confused is it the speed of light relitive to the media or a vacuum? ie in a space ship going the speed of light then you could only move towards the back if this limmited exested as an absolute but if it is to the medium electricity on the ship would be going 180% the speed of light if you messured it from outside the ship. Plus light has diffent speeds through diffent media which even further confuses the matter.

But the thing that made me really question the whole speed of light thing was when I was taking broadcasting theroy. Here is the low down 2 fields are in your standard TV or radio single a electric and magnetic field and they oppose each other which is what keeps them going as one falls the other climbs and vice versa the problem comes when you start to do the math for very very low frequencies. Me and my freinds where board so we went into a empty class room and hung out well we started to draw stuff on the black board. I came up with the idea to calucate a waveform in the micro hertz and it came to be bigger then the earth but according to the math the reaction between the magnetic and electic waveforms will be moving faster then the speed of light but all the books said a waveform will remain in perfect balance at any length yet for that to happen something has to be moving faster then the speed of light in extream cases like that.

[I.R Joey]

You know I think thev 186,000 miles per second thing, might actually be when traveling through a vaccume, but light can be a relative thing from what I understand. As for your equation, there exists a theory about how paticles traveling at FTL (Faster then Light) called Tachyon's might exist. But there would suppousedly be a barries that kept our worlds apart. IE a Tachyon could not pass bellow lightspeed, and we couldn't get above lightspeed. However, for waves I have no idea.

[Psycho Fox]

Originally posted by I.R Joey
You know I think thev 186,000 miles per second thing, might actually be when traveling through a vaccume, but light can be a relative thing from what I understand. As for your equation, there exists a theory about how paticles traveling at FTL (Faster then Light) called Tachyon's might exist. But there would suppousedly be a barries that kept our worlds apart. IE a Tachyon could not pass bellow lightspeed, and we couldn't get above lightspeed. However, for waves I have no idea. But think if the limmit was messured by a abolute reference in a point in space that didn't move then you could only go 20% the speed of light since electricty (needed of the ship) goes around 80% the speed of light. If it is to the medium the you just need a launcher to get you faster then the speed of light.

You could build a tube in that tube is layer of tubes each moving the speed of light relitive to the tube surrounding it thus the train inside can be going many time the speed of light compared to the outside world. The tubes will only extend to far thus the train inside will evenually launch into space at faster then light speeds and use its own momentum to reach its destination. Of course the acceleration of the tubes needed to make it practacle might pose a small problem

[batboy2001]

My great uncle worked for NASA and desined (spelling) the capsule for the the rocket that went to the moon. He was also in charge of a tracking station. I just saw him at Christmas so we got to talk about stuff like this, he seemed to think that it was impossible, but we can dream.

[Joe Tully]

A while back, scientists managed to make photons travel faster than 186k/sec, by shining light thru a vapor, I think it was cadmium vapor? This meant that the light traveled back in time and left the vapor-filled chamber before it entered it.

One idea that scientists have about faster-than-light is to alter the fabric of space. Imagine the fabric of space as being a pizza. I know this sounds silly, but this is how it was explained for me on TV.:) Remove a piece of the pizza, and pull the newly formed edges together to fill in the space from which the piece has been removed. Now the pizza is a bit concave, like the inside of a cone. A photon of light traveling straight across the "pizza" will have to travel into the concave space and a spaceship could possibly travel around the edge of the "pizza" faster and reach the opposite side before the photon. So the trick is to figure out how to do this to the fabric of space, or at least find places where space behaves in this manner.

The thing you have to realize is that faster than light travel causes travel back in time because of the relationship between time and space. So that could cause problems if the technology was ever developed.

[optimal321]

I guess this is what i get for not paying attention in Physics class, but isn't part of Einstein's whole thing that the only thing that can move at the speed of light is light? And if something actually accomplished that speed, it would in fact become light? I know i've heard that somewhere. If it's true or not, i don't know.

[DR. BELCH]

Friction would be a concern...an object going at that speed would rub against the very air molecules themselves and probably burn up unless properly insulated/lubricated. So in a way, it would become light itself, in the sense that it would turn into a huge flaming ball. What a way to die. :eek:
I suppose next we'll be pondering what would happen if one sneezed while going at such speed, or what would happen if two objects going that fast from opposite directions collided....

[I.R Joey]

Time dialation at the speed of C is what scares me though. If you go that fast and some how manage to bend time around yourself, so that you make a trip to Alpha Centauri and back in 30 years, but then find that Earth has aged several billion years and that the sun is about to die and shrink into a white dwarf or something.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

Originally posted by I.R Joey
Time dialation at the speed of C is what scares me though. If you go that fast and some how manage to bend time around yourself, so that you make a trip to Alpha Centauri and back in 30 years, but then find that Earth has aged several billion years and that the sun is about to die and shrink into a white dwarf or something.

Have you seen the anime "Gunbuster?" That has an interesting take on time dialation--You have this pilot who travels around space fighting wars while her friends and family grow old on earth in what would only seem to be months for her.

The ending to this anime pretty much mirrors what you described above. After zipping around space and defeating the aliens with this black hole bomb, she returns to earth billions of years later...and it's too late to do what she promised her friends before she left to fight the aliens, because everyone she knew are long dead by now.

[Psycho Fox]

Think of this your are in a space ship doing 1/2 the speed of light you turn on the electricity now does it work?

Electricity goes arround 80% (depending on the medium) the speed of light. Odds are it will since in the wire the conditions will be the same as if the wire was not moving.

Thus if this is true the the limmit only is in reference to the medium thus you can for example build a tube from here to anouther system and put in 10 tubes each going 1/2 the speed of light comparied to each other thus in the center it will be going 5 times the speed of light but comparied to its surround it will only be doing 1/2 the speed of light thus no friction problem or faster then light problem. Or you can have 100 tubes going 1/4 the speed of light and go 25 times the speed of light.

Or as I said before you can go with a launcher and launch a ship in the same mannar (but friction would be a problem)