Mod Idea: Simulating surfaces -> Borg Technology -> Twinkie Physics -> Worldviews

[PvK]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:

If you go REALLY fast in real space, you should theoreticlly end up going back in time. The apparent time slows as you speed up and approach the speed of light, so "logiclly" after a point it should start running backwards.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that the limit of this theoretical effect, is that everyone else would see the fast ship as if it were moving almost as fast as the speed of light. The fast ship would in theory seem like it was travelling faster than the speed of light, as if there were no speed limit, but even with infinite speed, the time to reach the destination would be at least zero, but never less than zero. T = D/V. As long as D(istance) and V(elocity) are positive, change in T(ime) is positive. The only way to get negative T(ime) is to go away from your destination, which just means you're going the wrong direction in space, not in time.

So as far as I can tell, the "Star Trek slingshot effect" (like many of the rest of the explanations of Star Trek effects) is entirely a result of writers with much greater immagination than their knowledge of math and physics.

PvK