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Originally posted by Taera:
Ok.
*Solar Sail: i've met the thing in several other
places and curious how does it work
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Photons have momentum (although no mass). So when photons hit something, they impart their momemtum to it and push it along. Of course, they don't have much momentum, so they don't push things very hard. Roughly, a solar sail would be about the size of a small country would be needed to propel a spaceship, and acceleration would be agonizingly slow. On the plus side, solar sails (in theory) could get ships up to a significant percentage of lightspeed (like, 50% say)
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Meson BLaster: what *mesons* are?
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Short answer: Mesons are sub-atomic particles (i.e. smaller than an atom, in fact, smaller than electrons, neutrons and protons). Long answer: study physics a lot, then study it a lot more.
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*Phased Polaron and Phased Shields - no idea what these are
*Why null-space skips anything?
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I think these are just made up. Polarons might be real, but as always google comes to the rescue. A google search for +meson +subatomic comes up with a whole bunch of useful results. A search for +polaron +subatomic comes up with (mostly) episode synopses for Star Trek Voyager.
I suppose, in theory, the idea is that regular shields have a natural polarization (i.e. they admit electromagnetic radiation which has its components oriented in a certain direction). Phased polaron beams would (presumably) oscillate in this direction, and pass right though. Phased shields would stop this.
The important thing to remember is that most of it is not scientifically accurate (like too much science fiction (See also: Star Trek Voyager)). If it inspires you to actually learn a little about science, then it has done its job. Just don't get discouraged when the actual science isn't so immediately fascinating 