- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Posted by: Blackmarch
Actually, (in sci fi anyways) you don't have to go faster than light speed to beat it, all you need to do is fold space
Example
to show this, take a piece of paper (this represents space-time), then put two points on it, at opposite ends. now what is the fastest way to get from the first point to the second? you would think a straight line between the two points (which is probably around 11 inches on the flat piece of paper- which light can travel along only so fast...) But what happens when you fold the paper so that the 2 points are touching? you get from point one to point two way quicker, but you don't pass the speed of light.
Now how to do that is up to the sci-fi part...
or be able to create/go to another dimension/universe that translates distance differently than with our universe which is less possible than the first option, from what I understand...
Ahh, I see someone has seen Event-Horizon. In Halo, the Shaw-Fujikawa drives never allowed the UNSC's ships the travel faster then light. As you approach the speed of light, not only does your mass increase but you physical size decreases (smaller + more mass= Denser volume of space). This combined with the fact that nothing man made, as of yet, could with-stand the forces that would be exerted on your vessel would makes light-speed (299,792,458 m/s in a vacuum) impossible. Another idea is that because time slows as you reach light speed, once you hit the speed of light your mass might become infinite. I.E. you would be able to travel anywhere instantly.
Now in Halo, Shaw-Fujikawa space wasn't even really space. It was more like a strange sub-space where in the laws of physics, with we are all bonded to, dang it, do not apply. As such not only is mass and volume superfluous, but so is velocity. So one might say that in Shaw-Fujikawa Space you speed is what ever you choose it to be; want to call it light speed? Go ahead. If you would recall, in the book it also said that not only was Shaw-Fujikawa, or slip space, was hard to navigate but also could cause a time fluctuation of hours or even days. Also it said that you could end up several hundred thousand meters off course.
PS - A.) You would not be able to measure a black hole's mass because its mass is "supposedly" infinite, thus its ability to pull in every thing, including light (black hole, get it?).
B.) Steven Hawkins’s book, A Brief History of Time is a good one but see also The Evolution of Physics By: Albert Einstein and Leopold Infield
[Edited on 9/28/2004 6:30:38 PM]