Physicists: My theory of obtaining lightspeed!

[Bes]

Interesting thread

 

[Vonhelmet]

Interesting thread

Holy thread resurrection Batman!

 

[Ricochet J]

Interesting thread

Jeese Louise! I thought I saw the last of my thread creation! I'm happy it still lives. I still shine torches on walls to see if they move...

 

[Solari]

Simply use the star trek style transponders, or food replicator technologies..

Sit inside space ship, a fancy scanner measures every single atom, transmits the information by radio waves, a reciever station picks up the transmission and the replicator device rebuilds every single atom in the same place. Hey presto, you've jumped at the speed of light.

So the original is destroyed? What if it's me... does what comes out at the other end still constitute me? I guess such an experiment *might* be able to prove or disprove the existence of a "soul"?
*head explodes*

 

[strudey]

So the original is destroyed? What if it's me... does what comes out at the other end still constitute me? I guess such an experiment *might* be able to prove or disprove the existence of a "soul"?
*head explodes*

It'd think it was you. But it wouldn't be you. You'd be dead!

 

[Energize]

Travelling at lightspeed is pointless unless you have the following:

1.) A way of manipulating mavity so that you can clear debris out of your path. Even a few particles would cause immense damage to your ship at relativistic speeds.

mavity is a very weak force and is only ever attractive, so being able to manipulate it wouldn't help much. You would want an EM field to deflect objects rather than a gravitational one.

2.) A means of harnessing fuel on your journey to sustain your speed and ship operations, rather than taking fuel with you. Even anti matter fuel wouldnt last long if you had to take it with you, and you'd need a lot of it to start with.

If your travelling near lightspeed though, you can travel immense distances in almost an instant from your perspective, so you wouldn't require huge amounts of fuel surely?

 

[Sp!ke]

Faster than light travel is easy.............. just neutralise inertia, job done

On a side note I thought Einstiens equations stated that you can't travel at the speed of light rather than faster? iirc there are thoeretical particles with mass that cannot travel slower than C aren't there?

[disclaimer] My A level physics was a very long time ago so be gentle[/disclaimer]

 

[spp]

iirc there are thoeretical particles with mass that cannot travel slower than C aren't there?

Tachyons which as you say are, at this stage, theoretical.

 

[Angilion]

EDIT: I didn't see the age of the post I was replying to.

 

[Aod]

Interesting thread

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

 

[Le_Petit_Lapin]

There's no point in moving fast...why move fast, if you can just bend space-time?

Much more efficient way of doing things in my opinion.

 

[The_morrell]

intresting thread but I got couple of quick questions...

When you get to the speed of light, how do you a slow down?
Surely just firing the front rocket engines will result in death...

and how do you see whats happening in front of you?
I'm think that some sort of drivers cabin at the front will not allow you to see any rocks that just happen to be in you path.

 

[FrannoBaz]

Strap a Turbo on?

 

[Le_Petit_Lapin]

When you get to the speed of light, how do you a slow down?
Surely just firing the front rocket engines will result in death...

Shouldn't really, as long as you do it slowly enough.

and how do you see whats happening in front of you?
I'm think that some sort of drivers cabin at the front will not allow you to see any rocks that just happen to be in you path.

You cant, by the time you "see" something immediately in front of you, you've gone past it.

I reckon a grab your balls and hope for the best approach is required.

 

[Inquisitor]

and how do you see whats happening in front of you?
I'm think that some sort of drivers cabin at the front will not allow you to see any rocks that just happen to be in you path.

What you'd see when travelling at the speed of light doesn't really make sense as a question I'm afraid

 

[geuben]

Surely when traveling at the speed of light you have infinte mass, therefore you will destroy anything that might happen to be in your path.

 

[lay-z-boy]

OMG this thread is soooooooooo old

 

[geuben]

OMG this thread is soooooooooo old

I hadn't even noticed

 

[Le_Petit_Lapin]

OMG this thread is soooooooooo old

Depends what speed you've been moving at I guess.

Surely when traveling at the speed of light you have infinte mass, therefore you will destroy anything that might happen to be in your path.

the downside being that in the ensuing cataclysmic explosion, you make up a nice chunk of the reaction mass?

 

[jimbobjames]

Fear not NASA, exs is here!

Moving spaceships at lightspeed = impossible.

Would be cool though, time stops at lightspeed (according to my physX teacher anyway)

A bit like how breaking the sound barrier was considered impossible until the invention of rocket and then jet engines made it possible ?

The problem with describing the world around us with "laws" is that people have a hard time coming to grips with the fact that the laws they've been clinging to, are actually totally wrong or a massive simplification of the truth.
Which makes changing people's mind about how the universe works become increasingly difficult.

Also in Star Trek the ship never moves - it warps space / time and moves space instead. If you imagine a big curve of space, like a wave, with the ship in the trough. The engine bends space and causes the ship to be pushed along. Its also theoretically possible I believe - thats theoretically not like they;'ll do it next week around lunchtime on Thursday.