Is It Possible To "break Air"? Would This Lead To A Wormhole Developing?

[Knuckledragger]

When you see aircraft travelling at supersonic speed they break the sound barrier right and it's almost as if they're splitting the air, so what if you have a plane or rocket travelling at 1000 times that speed? The air would become solid at that speed and as we know solids can be broken, is it possible that the formation of a wormhole could be made this way? Where would this even lead to seeing that only one end is open?

[jim360]

What sort of wormhole?

[paross]

It is possible to 'break wind' tho and similar things can happen as a result of that!!!

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

[Knuckledragger]

I was unaware there was more then one type, what types are there apart from the normal type?

[jim360]

Well what do you think of as the normal type?

[Knuckledragger]

I didn't even see that paross, get your mind out of the toilet, lol.

[Knuckledragger]

This type jim

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhole

[Knuckledragger]

Oops, sorry there are several there, i meant the Traversable wormhole

[jim360]

Yes, that's what I thought.

Then no. A wormhole is not a hole ripped through a solid, it's a hole ripped through space and time itself. No way can you even get close to doing that with a plane through air, no matter how fast you are travelling.

What does happen at those speeds I can't tell you exactly - but it wouldn't be nearly as dramatic as to rip space apart.

[Knuckledragger]

Jim physics do strange things at unknown speeds, loo at this advert, i know it's just computer effects but check out the u.f.o at 26 seconds, this is how i'd imagine it'd work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLlmrquouUs

[jim360]

Strange, but not that strange.

A wormhole is a hole in space-time, and not in air or any solid. That's just an effect. I imagine creating a wormhole might do weird stuff to the air around it, but it's nothing to do with the air itself, or how anything travels though it.

[Knuckledragger]

So you think a wormhole is impossible on earth but viable in space? So air hampers it's formation? How so?

[jim360]

I'm yet to be convinced that a wormhole is possible even in space. What I am saying is that if someone did form a wormhole on Earth, it wouldn't have anything to do with how fast they were travelling through the air. It's entirely a spacetime effect and the puff of air you are seeing in that advert is just dramatic licence that would have nothing to do with forming the wormhole.

What happens when someone travels as fast as Mach 1000+ through air I can't say for certain, but I can guarantee that it wouldn't involve creating any wormholes.

[Knuckledragger]

Okay let's turn this up a notch, let's say the space vehicle could travel at 10,000 the speed of mach 3, now you cannot deny that at these incredible speeds like i said earlier air becomes solid, so what happens to the aircraft, does it blow up, does it crash into the solid air, no the only viable and logical thought is that it will smash the air to pieces and what happens when you break a wall?

You get access to what's behind the wall!

If this isn't being discussed now then mark my words one day it will.

[jim360]

Currently it's a logistical challenge to build craft capable of travelling at Mach 25+ through the air, let alone Mach 10,000 which is 400 times faster. I don't think you are getting my point -- effect you get from travelling through air at such speeds are undoubtedly going to be violent and interesting, but they will never get anywhere near enough to being able to create a wormhole. Why? Because wormholes are holes in spacetime itself. To rip such a hole requires an amount of energy greater than anything observed in the Universe so far. A plane travelling through air wouldn't be even close to the right order of magnitude of energy.

[Clanad]

There maybe a misunderstanding of what actually happens when the speed of sound is surpassed. It's a somewhat arbitrarily chosen word picture that simply explains that when and object approaches and exceeds the speed (about 768 mph, depending on atmoshperic conditions) the usually loud noise accompanying the phenomena is only an indicator detected by the observer that the compressibility point of the air has been reached. Another analogy would be an object catching up with and surpassing the speed at which sound waves are produced in the air. Really no big deal.

Here in the western U.S., we have performers that usually are featured at rodeos... they are experts in using the ancient "bull whip" to demonstrate tricks, such as snuffing out a cigarette held in the lips of a lovely female performer. When the whip snaps the cigarette away, a loud sound is heard... simply the tip of the whip exceeding the speed of sound... momentarily at least.

When a propeller driven aircraft is designed, one of the considerations is the length of the propeller... primarily to determine safe ground clearance when it's operating on the surface, but, equally important, is the speed of the tips of the propeller thoughout its operating envelope... so that the tips do not exceed the speed of sound, where it loses efficiency dramatically.

There's no significance, other than aerodynamic considerations to the event... certainly nothing that could produce the ill defined "wormhole"... which is still a concept only....

[jake-the-peg]

Knuckledragger

You might be interested in Cherenvov radiation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation

The speed of light in vacuum is an absolute speed limit but the speed of light in air or water is lower.

When radiation travels faster than light in a medium you get this Cherenkov radiation which is the blue glow.

This is very similar to your aircraft at MACH 1000 although much smaller

No wormholes are seen

[jomifl]

Kd, It is quite likely that your hypothetical aircraft could not carry enough fuel to attain the speeds that you are considering. Either way it would get so hot because of friction that it would at the least disintegrate and some parts would probably melt, evaporate or oxydise long before it got to your 'wormhole speed'.

[vascop]

To quote from Jim Al-Khalili's very recent book, Black Holes, Wormholes, and Time Machines, second Edition 2012
"...unlike black holes, wormholes remain as theoretical curiosities with not a shred of evidence from astronomy for their existence in the real universe."

[jake-the-peg]

//theoretical curiosities with not a shred of evidence//

So like string theory then?