Warp Speed, Scotty? Star Trek's FTL Drive May Actually Work

[The Enigma]

Warp Speed, Scotty? Star Trek's FTL Drive May Actually Work


In the "Star Trek" TV shows and films, the U.S.S. Enterprise's warp engine
allows the ship to move faster than light, an ability that is, as Spock would
say, "highly illogical."



However, there's a loophole in Einstein's general theory of relativity that
could allow a ship to traverse vast distances in less time than it would take
light. The trick? It's not the starship that's moving — it's the space around it.

In fact, scientists at NASA are right now working on the first practical field
test toward proving the possibility of warp drives and faster-than-light
travel. Maybe the warp drive on "Star Trek" is possible after all. [See also:
Warp Drive: Can It Be Done? (Video)]

According to Einstein's theory, an object with mass cannot go as fast or
faster than the speed of light. The original "Star Trek" series ignored this
"universal speed limit" in favor of a ship that could zip around the galaxy in a
matter of days instead of decades. They tried to explain the ship's faster-
than-light capabilities by powering the warp engine with a "matter-
antimatter" engine. Antimatter was a popular field of study in the 1960s,
when creator Gene Roddenberry was first writing the series. When matter
and antimatter collide, their mass is converted to kinetic energy in keeping
with Einstein's mass-energy equivalence formula, E=mc2.

Read the full article at: TechNews Daily

[Skybird]

There was a newspaper article just days ago on an issue they discuss about the Higgs Boson. It seems there is some problem with the matter of it, as I recall it, its weight. Meaning that if the Higgs Boson would be created and be the way and nature predicted (or indeed is like that, I do not remember it precisely, I just flew over it), it would destabilize the whole universe'S structure and mankind - or better maybe: mind - only existing on some sort of a razorblade'S thin edge between stability and instability, existence and non-existence. I don't get it together correctly, maybe somebody has an English link. It's just days ago.

What I mean is: be careful with trying to move all universe around yourself being a fixpoint. You may end up like the three last protagonists in this fantastic movie, "The Quiet Earth".

Awfully good movie. Maximum effect for minimum cost.

Youtube has it:

1 hour 30 min.

[Jimbuna]

[Skybird]

That was the Geman article:

http://www.focus.de/wissen/weltraum/...id_985901.html

They say the mass of this particle is within a value margin where it could destabilise vacuum itself - and by that it could make the universe collapsing. This theory is based on calculations done by Sidney Coleman and Frank de Luccia in 1980. Wikipedia links their names to this article about the so-called "false vacuum".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_vacuum

That is not one but two hijacking articles. Double facepalm, please!

P.S. Google also gives this: http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~st...anDeLuccia.pdf Don'T ask me to explain the formulas, I cannot.

[Cybermat47]

If it does actually work, we've got to call the place 'slipstream space', and have the FTL drive made by two guys with the surnames 'Shaw' and 'Fujikiwa'. Ok?

[Onkel Neal]

You want to see FTL speed? You should see my Suzuki when I wake up late for work. It can bend time and space.

[vienna]

Possible physics excuse for when you get pulled over:

"Really, Officer, I wasn't speeding; the earth was just moving really fast..."

<O>

[Betonov]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

You want to see FTL speed? You should see my Suzuki when I wake up late for work. It can bend time and space.

Suzikis tend to do that

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Cybermat47

If it does actually work, we've got to call the place 'slipstream space', and have the FTL drive made by two guys with the surnames 'Shaw' and 'Fujikiwa'. Ok?

No its Cochrane Continuum Distortion Propulsion.

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

No its Cochrane Continuum Distortion Propulsion.

If you change Distortion with Confusion...the acronym is C.C.C.P

SOVIETS! I KNEW IT! I saw right through your lies. This is obviously a plot to overthrow the Russian government and return Russia to it's former glory.

[CaptainMattJ.]

Originally Posted by Cybermat47

If it does actually work, we've got to call the place 'slipstream space', and have the FTL drive made by two guys with the surnames 'Shaw' and 'Fujikiwa'. Ok?

No

Besides slipstream space was supposed to be a different dimension, one that threw all previous knowledge of space and time out the window and whose properties defied logic.