Semi-OT: A General Tech Question Thread for me :)

[El_Phil]

Starhawk said:
Or it would not have any time dialation effects at all and you would just happen to get someplace else at the same time you left which is an interesting theory

Imagine that "Ladies and gentlemen we are leaving at 12:01pm September 24 and proceeding 50 light years the trip will take x amount of time)

Say a week later "Ladies and gentlemen welcome to destination B 50 light years away, the time is 12:01 september 24th thank you for flying paradox air."

Possible

My official position: Temporal Mechanics is very very bad for the health and should never be dabbled in more than necessary.

However time does slow down as you go faster in exact accordance with relativity. Hell, even at Mach 2 the effect is mesaurable. Take two atomic clocks, synchronsie them and stick one on a concorde. Compare the two when they land and you will find that the land based one is ahead.

As for FTL, you have asked for explanations, so here they are (but simplified, of course ). You cannot go FTL in a universe that has causality and relativity. Causality is simply cause and effect, something has to make something happen. Relativity is time slowing down, and eventually reversing, as you approach then pass light speed. If you can go faster than light, you can go back in time. If you've traveled in time you muck up causality hugely in a variety of, hopefully, obvious ways.