🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <569rgm$f...@bigboote.WPI.EDU>,
	rasm...@paramount.res.wpi.edu (Frank Sweetser) writes:
   : Chris (coop...@cf.ac.uk) wrote:

   : : Eintiens Theory of Relativity. Exactly what it says; its
   : : relative to something. If you are in the car the headlights
   : : relative to you would still produce light at 3 x10^8 m/s Only
   : : the observer would percieve the light a short distance away
   : : from the car as both the car AND the light are very closely
   : : mathced in speed. All wierd, but them again according to
   : : Einstein at the speed of light your energy and mass become
   : : infinite and your length in space equals zero, therefore you
   : : occupy all pionts in space at the same time form the
   : : application of infinate speed = universe is destroyed! But that
   : : is all relative to the observer! not you!!  Confused yet???

   : The keyword, kids, is *THEORY*...
   : NEVER accept theories as the end-all truth...
   : There used to be a theory that it was impossible to travel at/faster than
   : the speed of sound....

   Why, of course it's not impossible.... it's just infinitly
   improbably.

The "Why once, people said you couldn't travel faster than the speed
of sound" response is one of those all-time silly responses.  When
people said "Humans will never fly", they didn't mean "Flight is
impossible".  They had counterexamples proving it _was_ possible.
They just didn't think humans would ever do it.  Likewise, the "sound
barrier" was "Humans will never break the speed of sound", not "The
speed of sound is an upper limit on speed".  A simple whip breaks the
speed of sound.

The speed of light is not a "humans will never break the speed of
light".  The speed of light in a vacuum, c, is a property of our
universe, like pi or e.  You _cannot_ go faster than the speed of
light while remaining in our universe.  Almost by definition, if you
are going faster than the speed light travels in our universe, then
you are _not_ in our universe.  [To quickly stop certain types of
responses, if you use a "wormhole" to instantaneously go from "here"
to "there", you are not in our universe.  You got from "here" to
"there" faster than light could have, but you did not take the path
light would have taken.  Likewise if you do things like time travel or
whatnot.  "Faster than the speed of light" means that you got from
"here" to "there" before light would have, using the same path.  As
you can see, saying "travel faster than the speed of light" also
implies certain definitions for "travel".]

To be even more specific, back when the speed of sound was fast, all
velocity and acceleration equations worked fine past the speed of
sound.  It's just that nobody figured you could actually ever _go_
that fast.  They could still figure out what accelerations would be
necessary to push a given mass past the speed of sound, at least in
theory.  None of our equations work if you use velocities faster than
the speed of light.  If you use velocities faster than the speed of
light, the results of the equations _aren't_ consistent with arriving
at your destination before light would have by the same path.

This isn't really a matter of opinion.  To prove that you can't go
faster than the speed of light, I don't have to opine that your
vehicle will fall apart, or your mind cannot take it, or that there's
no mechanical means to connect enough engines, or anything like that.
I can just prove that YOU CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE!  You could take
_all_ the mass in our universe, convert every last particle to energy
(for maximum boost) and shoot it all in one direction - and you still
will not manage to accelerate yourself to light speed.  The problem is
that the amount of acceleration to add a given amount of velocity
increases exponentially to infinity.

In some very basic, essential sense, if you ever find yourself going
"faster than the speed of light in our universe", you will also find
that you are indeed not in our universe.

[I had a roomate who once would start a conversation with something
like "But let's say you _could_ go faster than the speed of light."
How can you start a conversation by invoking magic?  I just wonder why
people so seldom say things like "What if pi was exactly 3.5?" or
"What if e was 3.1415926...?" or "What if i was not imaginary?"]

Sigh,
--
scott hess <sh...@one.net>     (606) 578-0412      http://w3.one.net/~shess/
<I plan to become so famous that people buy tapes of me reading source code>