Saturday, June 13, 2009

New research shows Warp Drives would suck!

hey here is an interesting article sent in by Tim Sayell from Discovery online.
  • According to new calculations by Italian physicists, a warp drive could easily create a black hole that would incinerate any passengers on a space craft and then suck Earth into the same black hole!
As we all know...normal physics shows that FTL is impossible. As speed increases so does mass and therefore the more energy you need to move even a small amount faster. As you approach light speed your mass becomes infinite and therefore the amount of energy you need to move faster also becomes infinity. I have said (tongue firmly in cheek) that the stars themselves prove ftl is impossible. Why? Because if you go an infinite speed you need infinite energy, which means all the power in the universe plus a little bit more. Since the stars are still burning..... but anyway..

The first exception to the ftl rule is a wormhole. If a ship were to cross the wormhole threshold, it would still be going sub light, but it would still arrive at the other end before any light that had to travel the distance outside the wormhole.

The second itself is the idea of a warp engine that physicist Michael Alcubierre envisioned.
  • Alcubierre warp drive would create a bubble of energy behind the ship and a lack of energy in front of the ship, like a giant cosmic wave a space ship could surf. That particular section of space can travel faster than the speed of light in the surrounding space, and anything on or in that bubble will accelerate with it. (here is the original article BMU ran on the Alcubierre drive)
The problems start when you consider the amount of energy it would take to create the "bubble" that would contain the ftl. Plus you would need even more energy to "push" the bubble along. The problems really start when the energy to hold everything in check runs out. Just like antimatter, when the dark matter needed comes into contact with normal matter the ship inside is destroyed by temperatures well in excess of that near the core of a supernova. Plus as the bubble collapses it could very well create a black hole that would not bode well for ships or planets nearby.

Read complete article here

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

who wrote this and is the editor blind?

Beam Me Up said...

The by line on the discovery article is by a guy named Bland. (hummm) I drew most from that article, but it was first discussed (at least on this blog) last July... But I did find the paper that this article is based on and its not fly by night...Though its the first time I have heard the black hole conjecture....they do not seemed to be pulling it out of their ass.

Anonymous said...

Use a spellchecker!

Beam Me Up said...

is that what it comes down to? The idea doesn't count....I miss a couple of letters and the idea suddenly takes second. Now that is sad. Read the statement for the blog my friend. It's whole reason for being is to throw ideas and discussion for the Radio program/podcast. The whole reason I started it was to get my ideas together and let others weigh in. I am not about to call anyone on spelling. There are plenty of well written fluff blogs out there for your spell checker to munch on. Find one... enjoy.

Stan said...

Well said, Beam Me Up.

Anonymous, get a life, soon...

Beam Me Up said...

Thanks Stan
There has been a lot of off site mail in that vein. I welcome comment, and input. I know there are a great deal of you out there that like to weigh in. And it troubles me that some would be put off simply for fear of being denigrated for simple typos. BMU (both blog and podcast) are not vehicles for self aggrandizement. I honestly want to say..."hey, this is really exciting! "what do you think" Or have someone else do the same. The day that we can't do that for fear of reprisal, is a day when I don't think BMU serves a purpose anymore.

Paul

Stan said...

Agree again, Beam Me Up.

The last thing we need in this age of the internet are more self-appointed critics waiting in the wings to - wait for it, drum roll please - pounce on a typo or other world shattering editorial event... that sort of narkiness (oops! did I spell that correctly? Tremble, tremble) takes away from the pleasure of sites like this, which, I think, is probably the highlight of the day for those making the inane criticisms.
I saw in the site description that you do this (like others elsewhere) out of your own time and pocket. Well, thanks, it is much appreciated, let me tell you.

Beam Me Up said...

** all comments aside I did post the story before I had a chance to go over it. I appreciate everyone's support but by the same token...not proofing well...