- Bungie2
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- Intrepid Mythic Member
We believe that the universe is unbounded: this is not the same as infinite: the 2-D surface of a sphere, wrapped around a 3rd dimension, has a finite size, but has no end. If you start off in a given direction on the surface of a sphere, you could return to your start point without having to turn around -- you simply go all the way around. But wouldn't that mean the universe has an escape velocity like the earth?
Posted by: Scarecrow118
Posted by: AngrydoG
Posted by: American Recoil
Can matter even travel faster than the speed of light? Light isn't matter, it is a form of energy. Since nothing can travel as fast as the speed of light, how can we even know? Matter would simply change to energy.
And according to Einstein, to get to the speed of light you must accelerate, or course. Acceleration requires energy. X amount of acceleration requires Y amount of energy or X=Y. The mass of an object moving the speed of light would be infinite and the infinite amount of energy needed to reach that speed is impossible.
Light has mass. Though very very very......... Very small, thats why black holes can nab light, so technically, it is possible to reach light speed, but no faster.
Well, technically, whether or not light has mass is not the reason that black holes can trap them. Light has the property of traveling in a straight line where possible. If you imagine space as a flat sheet of rubber and roll a marble across it, that marble will travel in a straight line.
However, if you drop a heavy weight in there, then try to roll the marble over it, the marble is still attempting to travel in a straight line, however it will be captured in the indentation caused by the weight. If the light passes far enough from the hole to retain escape velocity, it will curve around the cone caused by the hole and continue off in a straight line. This results in the effect known as gravitational lensing. If however the light travels too close it will be warped around the curvature in space until it ends up in a downwards spiral into the event horizon.
Now, onto my definition of FTL. As many people have already stated in this thread, FTL in 3D space is theoretically impossible due to the infinite power requirement to do so. It may not be necessary to do so however.
If humanity was to become space pioneers, in the sense that new colonies on discovered worlds were completely self sufficient, FTL would not be necessary. As it has also been stated in this thread, as relative velocity increases, time as viewed by a passenger slows down in comparison to an outside observer, in an effect known as Time Dilation.
As such, having ships capable of reaching relativistic speeds would result in passengers experiencing a shorter passage of time than those remaining on Earth. This would allow humanity to reach other planets within a single lifetime for the inhabitants, even if several generations pass on Earth. This would make it impractical to have a galactic economy or government as depicted by many books, movies and games of the sci-fi genre, as each would be required to be fully self sufficient.
However, this is a discussion about actual FTL travel. Borrowing from B2's theory of parallel dimensions, I visualised these dimensions as parallel stacked sheets of rubber like I used in the explanation above. Also as B2 said, intense gravity wells could stretch these dimensions so that the barrier separating the two was diminished, just like stretching the rubber sheets thins them. If an intense enough gravity well were to be generated, say by a series of micro-black holes, the instant burst of energy generated by the Hawking radiation from the black holes could tear a rip between the dimensions, allowing travel between the two, where we are assuming that physics as we know them are not the same.
There are major flaws with this system however.
First of all, we have know way of knowing when or how to exit this next dimension, or even if it's possible by the same method as entry.
Secondly, if we are banking on the fact that physically limits present in our dimension are different or non-existent in the next, how do we know our ships would not just disintegrate on entry? Or even if everything we take for granted in our dimension such as momentum and velocity don't hold true? Propulsion may not even work.
Thirdly, power requirements would be massive beyond belief. This problem however could be solved, and it potentially solves a major issue from the first one too. If gates were constructed around major gravitational wells such as stars or black holes, energy could be absorbed by the gates to facilitate the energy required to make a jump. As a bonus, this would also provide the jumps with a precise set of coordinates to make between, allowing safer and more precise travel.
Fourth is a major consideration that cannot be safely tested at all. Nobody possibly knows what might happen if a hole was torn between dimensions. I'm sure you can all work out some doomsday plans if you would like.
EDIT 1:
Hmm, I apologise. I was hoping to add something as constructive and interesting to this discussion like B2 (well, I'm interested anyway...), but this really just turned out to be a baseless fountain of sci-fi concepts. I've got some knowledge on astrophysics, but not quantum... Sorry everyone :'(
Actually, you've done good, because you are correct in the sense that parallel universes may have parallel laws. As for parallel dimensions in the same space but in a higher dimensional field, this is an unknown whether the rules are different, or tweaked. To Produce a microscopic black hole, one must anticipate mass energy requirements, to which fusion could be a part of the answer.
But let me try answer what your saying, which boilds down to 4 points,
-Navigation
-Dimensional Compatibility
-Power Function
-Threats to integrity.
Now all my theories have been based on entering the dimension. Getting out however is the issue, which requires extensive research, but can NOT be done unless penetration is done. It would be likely that for practical study, (if my theory works), a rift would have to be opened and sustained with an object held on a line to test current theorems on th differences on major laws of thermodynamics, quantum fundamentals, and physics, not to mention the countless tests on relativity and such. Planckian Energy seems to be our best bet, however the effects of bubbling spacetime in a different space entirely is a controversially debatable topic.
Integrity is another ood point, so let me help you. draw a dot ona piece of paper. now draw 2 dots and join them by a line. You have just transformed 0-D (the dot), into 1-D (the line). Now turn it into a square (2-D), now a cube (3-D), and if you wish, a tessaract (4-D), then a pentaract (5-D).....The Mathematical concept keeps growing, and well, direction becomes rather scary, but still plausible. we live in a 4-D universe, but only see 3, spatial (x,y,z) dimensions. Thanks to String Theory, we now know there are extra dimensions, all spatial, and therefore, simply invisible to us, but accessible from the quantum scale. This is why microscopic black holes, because manipulation of all dimensions is plausible via the black hole, and can be accessed by using the blackhole as the catalyst we use to rip a portal into 11-D space. Therefore, I say with 78% definity, that we will not disintegrate, but mass tests would need to be done if a portal is ripped open, in order to test 11-D spatial space before throwing a trillion dollar spacecraft in there.
Now, Power. Thats always the key word. How much energy is needed? About 1,000,000,000,000,000 times the energy of the protons at the LHC. That's a big number! So why are people talking about black holes at the LHC? Well, maybe our current understanding of gravity isn't right. Maybe our three dimensions of space are just some three dimensional membrane in some higher dimensional space with all forces except gravity confined to this membrane, so that gravity is a very weak force except when we get to the right energy scale, and maybe that energy scale is the one we are about to probe with the LHC, and maybe the parameters of this model turn out just right so that when the LHC collides protons, black holes will form. Anyway, thats a lot of maybes. Lets get honest. Fusion, more specifically, the harnessing of the sun to produce these extensive energies. Imagine 5,000 years from now, maybe even 500. You look at the sun, it looks the same, then you look from mercury, and weird stations become visible. Imagine if man used the power of the largest fusion reactor within lightyears to produce interstellar, or even Inter-Galactic travel. Thats how much we need. Black holes are also plausible, as the rips been done, however the Danger level is pretty damn high. I have another idea though, but until i finalise my development of it, I wont say it :P.
4th, well yes...interdimensional rips are tricky indeed. We indeed do not know the repercussions of an interdimensional rip, which is why I wouldnt test it near earth, to be safe. To me however, there is a much higher chance of the rift recollapsing shut, like space-time healing itself as soon as a space vehicle goes through the rift. There is an infinitesimal chance that the space-time continuum will be affected permanently, and there is a slightly larger, but quantumisably small odd that it recollapses into a black hole, which would wreck havoc for a few months before Hawking Radiation eliminates the problem, therefore meaning, do the rip at a plutonian distance :P.
Anyway, you have made a good contribution, just remember, the cell-phone and atomic bomb were sci-fi concepts a hundred or so years ago, and look now. 500 years ago, lots of the world believed Heaven, not space was above us, and 2000 years ago, the sun was a god chasing the moon. We evolve because of what creativity we have as a species, and that drive is what makes us human.
~B2