Light speed - The final frontier
Sci-fi series got us used to travel from one galaxy to another one as if it was some sort of trip to the grocery store. This, leads into the misconception of how difficult exploring space would be: If we consider today's humankind knowledge and technologies.
So, today, let me tell you a few things about one of the problems interstellar travels imply.
First things first, the HUGE distances that separate everything up there, in space.
I take for granted that you're familiar with the term "light years", this is, the distance light travels in a year of time. Translated down to "a trip to the grocery store" measures: 9500000000000 km. Round it up to 10 billion (US) or 10000 million (the rest of the world, where thousands of millions is a number that exists), if you like
To put this number in human perspective, it would take 10 million years to make that trip in a car driven at a rather fast speed 120 km/h (74.56 mph). If that car was in a trip towards the nearest extrasolar star we have (Alpha Centauri), it would take 38 million years to cover those 4 light years.
That is 4 light years, our galaxy measures 100000. Do the math.
Now that you did, calculate going to other galaxies, that are millions of light years away from us...
Everything in space is HUGE.
Now, lets imagine that somehow we manage to reach that desired light speed not going over what Asimov called "The Luxon Wall": The speed limit mass has, light speed.
Even at such speed (warp 1) , it would take us... Millions of years to get to another galaxy!
Not only that, kinetic energy is energy. Energy is not magic, it has to come out of somewhere, the amount of energy needed to accelerate a ship with a considerable mass is something that also breaks the boundaries of whatever we can imagine.
Even if we used antimatter as fuel, it also adds mass to the total of the ship, starting a vicious circle that needs to be somehow fed.
So, we should imagine that in a future FTL (faster than light) engines will be developed and used. It may sound crazy, but consider what would a stone age man, armed with a primitive stone axe he chipped out of a rock all by himself, think of the ISS.
The speed of magnetism is twice the speed of light.
So, maybe we it would better to travel at the speed of magnetism.
Anyway, the above post is all based on that hack Einstein.
Tesla said it was gravity, Einstein said it was light. I side with Tesla.
So, these are all wonderful stories, but we will find all this stuff we think of as science will be in the fiction section in a couple generations.
How do we expect to explore strange new worlds when we don't even what the shape of our own world is?
How do we expect to explore strange new worlds when we don't even see a tenth of what is here, right in front of our noses?
How do we expect to explore strange new worlds when science still hasn't admitted that magnetics is very important for maintaining our bodies. And that if we want to leave earth, we will have to take along a copy of the earth's magnetic field.
Wow @builderofcastles
Never heard about this magnetic thing of Tesla. I am interested in science and tesla things since years, but I really missed that part. Need to make a research about it :) Thank you for putting that in.
Not knowing the mineral riches that layed below their own feet, did not stop the primitive man from trying to cross the river to "explore beyond".
It is in our nature, to find more trouble where we already have more than enough!
It is indeed our nature to explore.
I just wish NASA wasn't such lying liars that lie so that our science fiction was more science and less fiction.
I know that for the immediate future such a thing is fantasy. Who knows what we will achieve in centuries time, the idea of reaching another galaxy is mind boggling but so exciting. A whole galaxy, so many systems, so much potential. I really hope that one day we can make it and take out pioneering spirit out there.
I think what is needed is completely transcendent technologies, such as "wormholes" or "space warping" rather than speed increases.
You know, the old "bring the mountain to Muhammed" approach. If you can't go fast enough, and if even twice as fast is too slow, you need to tinker with the rules of the game.
Thanks for a challenging article. ;)
😄😇😄
I believe that "spacebending" could be a nice option too. We have no frikking clue what dark matter can offer!
Dark matter doesn't exist. Its an explanation the "scientists" came up with because they couldn't work out that there may be other universal forces besides gravity.
Will have an article on it soon. And gravity doesn't exist... for a double whammy to "science".
FTL communication will never be possible, with any technology that comes in the future
As I said, show your phone to a stone age human... You cannot imagine FTL as he cannot imagine a phone. Do not limit others by what you understand as boundaries.
No, but we actually understand the theoretical basis for the impossibility of FTL communication. We cannot be compared to stone age humans because we now have a "rough draft" of the universe, and our best and valid frameworks do not allow for FTL propagation. This is not a limitation of human engineering, but a theoretical limit, no information can propagate faster than light, not even in principal. I'm sorry but saying otherwise makes you sound like an anti science charlatan.
Just go to physics. Stack exchange, ask the same question and users more qualified than me will also tell you the same thing.
Ps: there is no propagation of information in quantum entanglement, if you're frantically googling for possible counter examples ;)
Also, the same goes for Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. We'll never be able to know perfectly well the simultaneous position and momentum of quantum mechanical objects.
Saying some kind of miraculous technology in future will remove the uncertainty simply indicates that the person making the claim hardly understands the reasons and basis for the existence of that principle.
This, along with faster than c speed, are probably two of biggest pop science misconceptions.
Happy to clear it up
You are refuting ideas with rough absolutes, having no idea what knowledge will bring in a future.
You seem to have come only to troll and demean... please, go on your way.
https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-fundamental-reason-why-the-speed-of-light-cannot-be-broken
You see, human engineering is inconsequential for making predictions like this one, because it is a theoretical limitation and NOT an engineering one
I'd also claim that not only humans, but any species, no matter how advanced, will be able to break the barrier of c. Now, I'm sure you'd agree that is quit a bold claim, and if you followed my other posts, you'd probably see that I'm not a totally irrational moron that spews rhetoric, and that I'm more or less rational when it comes to scientific topics (at the very least. ) . So, is it not confusing when someone who is usually conservative / reserved with their statements coming out and making "bold" claims like this? Perhaps there's some fundamental misunderstanding you're harboring ; ) ?
That's not my intention, if disagreement sounds like demeaning, then I can't help it, if I called you a "charlatan" it's because statements like -
"we can some day build tech that will enable us to travel faster than c"
"we can one day design detection equipment precise enough to measure position and momentum of a quantum mechanical object to arbitrary accuracy "
are usually statements said by charlatans with a deep misunderstanding of the underlying scientific framework. And I just try to do my bit to correct them. No offence meant, at all.
What's your stackexchange username?
please help yourself
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!
You were attempting to be humorous, right?
Here's a couple of good lists of similar predictions:
http://www.etni.org.il/quotes/predictions.htm
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Incorrect_predictions
When you predict "never," you can never be proven correct...
I can predict that the phlogiston theory will never be correct
This is somewhat similiar
FTL communication is already a reality.
This post has received a 1.45 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @renzoarg.