OT: Handwavium-low methods of FTL travel? - Page 2

Cipher7071 · #1 July 16th, 2006, 04:01 PM

I've heard a theory that says a black hole may actually be an opening into a different (perhaps separate) part of the universe. If that's true, all we need to figure out is how to keep from being crushed out of existence during the passage.

Parasite · #2 July 18th, 2006, 03:17 PM

Gravity waves are expected to travel at the speed of light. We have not yet successfully detected them, but the detectors we have build are not sensitive enough to detect the largest gravity waves we think exist.

While this includes a lot of handwavium, it is still a possibility that they could travel at faster than light and we could end up using them to power a ship.

We could just use Brin's Epacharch and "believe" reality away. "Beleive we could go faster than light and it will happen. Those people that claim to come from out there, I mean how do we know... They might be right.

Puke · #3 July 18th, 2006, 05:37 PM

gravity is currently expected to propogate at FTL speeds by about half the scientific community. There is currently a large divide on the topic, and a great deal of experimentation being done.

The experiments show conclusively that there is relativistic effect acting, but they are ambiguous to the point that the reasearchers havent decided WHICH relativistic effect is acting.

NullAshton · #4 July 18th, 2006, 05:45 PM

Yeah, gravity follows the light speed rule too. Of all the things found so far, we haven't found anything that allows you to send information or matter faster than the speed of light. You can make wormholes and move it at lightspeed to your target, but that's not really going FTL. You're just altering spacetime.

Renegade 13 · #5 July 16th, 2006, 06:00 PM

Not to mention the time effects.

narf poit chez BOOM · #6 July 17th, 2006, 05:56 AM

One idea - I've heard that gravity is FTL - I'm not sure if that's been tested. But if we handwave the ability to manipulate gravity, could that accelarate something faster than the speed of light? (Since mass has *no effect on acceleration by gravity?)

* That I know of.

Suicide Junkie · #7 July 17th, 2006, 08:27 AM

Of course not. It takes an infinite amount of energy to make a massy object go arbitrarily close to the speed of light.

If you can manipulate gravity with arbitrary energy levels, though, wormholes and space warps are quite possible.

narf poit chez BOOM · #8 July 17th, 2006, 09:10 PM

Quote:

Suicide Junkie said:
Of course not. It takes an infinite amount of energy to make a massy object go arbitrarily close to the speed of light.

If you can manipulate gravity with arbitrary energy levels, though, wormholes and space warps are quite possible.

Er...Excessive energy levels?

I don't expect anything. Science isn't always about expecting anything, sometimes it's just about asking.

Renegade 13 · #9 July 17th, 2006, 06:26 AM

I think gravity is thought to be instantaneously propagating, but I don't think its been proven yet.

Renegade 13 · #10 July 17th, 2006, 02:36 PM

One possibility for FTL travel is other dimensions. Many theories of quantum physics predict several other dimensions, besides the 4 we know and interact with every day. If it would be possible to use those other dimensions for travel, it could be possible that distances are closer in those dimensions than in our familiar three, which doesn't actually break the light speed barrier in that dimension, but has the effect of seemingly breaking the light speed barrier in our own dimensions.