Superluminal Travel.

Atheist | 11:38 Thu 29th Dec 2022 | Science

13 Answers

We seem to be scrabbling about looking at the possibility of faster than light travel. I wonder if anything will come of it.

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Atheist

Question Author

I should have included this link.

https://www.sciencealert.com/faster-than-light-travel-is-possible-within-einstein-s-physics-astrophysicist-shows

mjwman

I don't see it happening....

Atheist

Question Author

It can't be close, but at least the possibility is being considered.

naomi24

Given the facility to view our society, say, one thousand years hence, I think we'd be truly astonished by what we saw ... that's if we don't blow ourselves to smithereens first.

jno

as it was once explained to me (on AB), you can't overtake the speed of light but if you're already moving faster than light there's nothing to stop you accelerating.

Atheist

Question Author

In just over a hundred years we have gone from no flight to moon landing and unmanned flight out of the solar system. Who knows what we can do in the next hundred years? But, I suspect that our technology has far outstripped our wisdom and I fear a tech collapse in the near future. :-(

beso

The principles of flight were well understood in 1800. It was known that all that was lacking was a light enough motor.

Rockets had been around for millennia so there was no fundamental impediment to getting to the Moon. Just combustion and Newtonian mechanics.

The speed of light is fundamental to the nature of the Universe and it is perfectly clear that no object having any mass can reach that speed. This fact is not going to change.

jim360

"I wonder if anything will come of it."

Probably not.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2105.03079.pdf

It's overwhelmingly likely, at this point, that faster-than-light travel is impossible. Not an engineering challenge that can be overcome with better technical skills, but a fundamental aspect of the Universe.

Still, there's no harm in spending time chasing after "ghosts" in physics. We can't find the limits on what's possible if we never search for them. Never stop dreaming. But in the end our most useful work is always done when awake :)

naomi24

Maybe in pursuing the quest for ever-increasing speed, we're thinking along the wrong lines. I have visions of the interstellar craft of the future utilising gravitational waves and surfing their way through the universe. Whoosh! :o)

jim360

It's an interesting idea, for sure. There are a couple of questions I'd have about it, though:

1. Gravitational waves are only generated in any significance by ridiculously energetic events (two large-mass black holes colliding, and then only for a few seconds in the last moments as they spin around each other).

2. And even then, they are so pathetically tiny that we'd barely notice them without stupidly sensitive equipment.

3. In particular, they only represent *local* disturbances in spacetime that quickly move on, while the matter is left behind wondering what all that was.

4. So how do you scale this up in order to make the waves (a) bigger, and (b) capable of propelling matter any significant distance.

The answer is that you don't. Even if this fell within the realm of engineering challenge, this wouldn't be all that different from trying to design a helicopter as a sensible solution for going from your house to your next-door neighbours'. Just walk :P

There will, no doubt, be other ways that we can viably explore the stars without deciding which of those stars we should next blow up! For my part, a more viable solution is to explore the concept of safe "sleeper ships".

naomi24

Say you don't know....