Gentlemen start your Warp engines

Gentlemen start your Warp engines

Author
Discussion

warp9

1,583 posts

196 months

Tuesday 18th September 2012
quotequote all
To infinity and beyond......!

MartG

20,622 posts

203 months

Wednesday 19th September 2012
quotequote all
Make it so !

LordGrover

33,531 posts

211 months

Wednesday 19th September 2012
quotequote all
link said:
White and his team are experimenting with a mini-version of a warp drive in their laboratory, using laser to try to warp space and time in miniature.
Can I have a job please, Mr White?

PeanutHead

7,839 posts

169 months

Wednesday 19th September 2012
quotequote all
Engage.

Guvernator

13,105 posts

164 months

Wednesday 19th September 2012
quotequote all
Hmm I thought the often sited consensus, even on this forum was that faster than light travel was impossible. Would any of the more knowledgeable physicists on here like to comment on this? Scientifically possible or a load of codswallop?

LordGrover

33,531 posts

211 months

Wednesday 19th September 2012
quotequote all
confused Did you not read the article or links?

Nuclearsquash

1,329 posts

261 months

Wednesday 19th September 2012
quotequote all
You don't need to go faster than light, just bend space to make the effective distance travelable at normal speeds.

Guvernator

13,105 posts

164 months

Wednesday 19th September 2012
quotequote all
Yes I did read the article and to be honest the article is confusing in itself but then it's the Daily Mail so I shouldn't be surprised really.

The OP's topic heading, the term Warp and the article itself all reference FTL travel but then the actual scientist is talking about bending space which has nothing to do with going faster than light but more to do with circumventing it instead.

Krikkit

26,500 posts

180 months

Wednesday 19th September 2012
quotequote all
Forget the spurious and ludicrous article, the comments are priceless!

Guvernator

13,105 posts

164 months

Wednesday 19th September 2012
quotequote all
Krikkit said:
Forget the spurious and ludicrous article, the comments are priceless!
Indeed, with the primary school grasp of physics on display, some of those people should be contributing to the Science forum!

TheHeretic

73,668 posts

254 months

Wednesday 19th September 2012
quotequote all
They say it is a ship. It isn't. It's an American football.

Simpo Two

85,149 posts

264 months

Thursday 20th September 2012
quotequote all
I always thought 'Warp 9' was 9x speed of light...

It must be an equivalent. IE I'm going to scrunch up this bit of space so much that I can get through it at sub light speed but to an outside observer it will SEEM to be 9c'




Who sends these outside observers anyway?!

Art0ir

9,401 posts

169 months

Thursday 20th September 2012
quotequote all
The Space.com article is a bit more.. readable

http://www.space.com/17628-warp-drive-possible-int...

tuffer

8,849 posts

266 months

Thursday 20th September 2012
quotequote all
So let me get this right, you float an American football in the middle of a Doughnut and jobs a good-un!!

plasticpig

12,932 posts

224 months

Thursday 20th September 2012
quotequote all
Simpo Two said:
I always thought 'Warp 9' was 9x speed of light...

It must be an equivalent. IE I'm going to scrunch up this bit of space so much that I can get through it at sub light speed but to an outside observer it will SEEM to be 9c'




Who sends these outside observers anyway?!
Slightly faster than that otherwise Captain Kirk wouldn't have got to Alpha Centauri before the first series was over.

Simpo Two

85,149 posts

264 months

Thursday 20th September 2012
quotequote all
Logathithmic perhaps then.

annodomini2

6,860 posts

250 months

Thursday 20th September 2012
quotequote all
Still impractical, just less unrealistic.

The fundamental issue is the 2nd half of the equation, notably: "Expand space-time behind the ship".

This effectively requires manipulation of the (currently) highly theoretical dark energy, which will still aren't certain exists.

Whether it can be manipulated or not is another issue.

Guvernator

13,105 posts

164 months

Thursday 20th September 2012
quotequote all
Guam said:
Thats the point of WARP in that context <warping space> smile
It was posted for a giggle, most folks got it, clearly not you. The Airplane on a conveyor thread should give you endless pleasure smile

A Car sized warp craft on a car forum why would that be pertinent smile
Oh I got the humor alright, just commenting on the mixed metaphors used in the article more than anything. smile

The idea of warp travel is very intriguing to me and indeed is essential for the long term survival of the human race as we need to get out of the solar system before we are obliterated by a lucky asteroid shot or a big solar flare or something. It's a pity that the article is a load of codswallop though, how exactly are they going to replicate manipulating space time in a lab then?

Oh and warp speed ala Star Trek is slightly more complicated than warp 9 = 9 times the speed of late as it's calculated on a geometric formula so each warp factor is many times the last. Warp 9 for example = about 1500 x the speed of light. Closet Trekkie nerdboxedin

Tim330

1,125 posts

211 months

Thursday 20th September 2012
quotequote all
Guvernator said:
Guam said:
Thats the point of WARP in that context <warping space> smile
It was posted for a giggle, most folks got it, clearly not you. The Airplane on a conveyor thread should give you endless pleasure smile

A Car sized warp craft on a car forum why would that be pertinent smile
Oh I got the humor alright, just commenting on the mixed metaphors used in the article more than anything. smile

The idea of warp travel is very intriguing to me and indeed is essential for the long term survival of the human race as we need to get out of the solar system before we are obliterated by a lucky asteroid shot or a big solar flare or something. It's a pity that the article is a load of codswallop though, how exactly are they going to replicate manipulating space time in a lab then?

Oh and warp speed ala Star Trek is slightly more complicated than warp 9 = 9 times the speed of late as it's calculated on a geometric formula so each warp factor is many times the last. Warp 9 for example = about 1500 x the speed of light. Closet Trekkie nerdboxedin
It also changed over the different series

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Warp_factor

Gene Vincent

4,002 posts

157 months

Monday 24th September 2012
quotequote all
Guvernator said:
Hmm I thought the often sited consensus, even on this forum was that faster than light travel was impossible. Would any of the more knowledgeable physicists on here like to comment on this? Scientifically possible or a load of codswallop?
Codswallop.

Time travel is not going to be possible, it means depleting the energy quotient in the 'time' that you left and adding that energy to the 'time' you arrive at.

This destroys the Cosmos.

You see the amount of energy and its equivalent is the same this instant as it was 13bn years ago, it is exactly the same amount and has remained that amount and will remain that amount.

You and your space craft are energy or its equivalence, so jumping through time would mean that you'd have already be there to 'send back' an equal amount back in time to the time you left.

This is not possible.

Time travel is impossible.

NASA always needs funds, it's a huge and continually burgeoning body and these flights of fantasy just help the cause.