🚀 go-pugleaf

Scott Hess wrote:
> 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.

I guess you are talking about that equation that calculates the amount
of mass needed to speed something up. I think it was something like this
(Sorry, I really don't know much about this stuff)

Mass = [Something That I don't remember] / (c - speed)

According to the above equation, If you wanted to reach the speed of
light, your equation would turn out to be division by zero, and you
would end up with infinity. Actually it is not infinity, it is
undefined. Consider the posibility that you already passed the speed of
light, your result is no longer undefined. I really think there is an
exception to this equation.

> [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?"]

Didn't a French matematician in 19th century proved that PI was equal to
2. I mean, not really proved it, but came up with the answer "PI is
approching to 2". A half-circle with a radius of one has the half
circumference PI. If you put two smaller half-circles inside that
half-circle with radiuses .5 you'll get half circumferences PI/2 for
those 2 smaller ones. Then you replace the half-radius of these smaller
half-circles with x and take the limit approaching 0. After some more
math PI comes up equal to the diameter of the first half-circle which
was 2. I think there is a glitch in there somewhere (probably related to
the L'Hospital rule), but I couldn't explain it.

I am not saying that PI is 2, but our knowledge of math, physics, our
knowledge of the workings of the universe is not that solid.

Thomas Alva Edison once said, "We don't know one millionth of one
percent about anything".

- Mehmet