Slashdot Mirror
Warp Engines In Development?
Toloran writes "Although a staple of Sci-Fi space travel, it is often deemed to be just that: Fiction. However, it seems that one is currently in development. "The theoretical engine works by creating an intense magnetic field that, according to ideas first developed by the late scientist Burkhard Heim in the 1950s, would produce a gravitational field and result in thrust for a spacecraft. Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension, where the speed of light is faster, allowing incredible speeds to be reached. Switching off the magnetic field would result in the engine reappearing in our current dimension.""
It reminds me of the experiments with the first atomic bombs: they didn't know that the chain reaction wouldn't ignite the atmosphere. Who knows what considerations they've given it. Will it jerk the earth out of it's orbit? Will it open a wormhole that sucks out the earth's atmosphere? Will it end life as we know it? I was under the impression that extreme magnetic fields were fatal to humans, to say nothing of throwing birds off of their migration patterns.
I wonder who they will bestow the honor of first flight on...
Like the WB Gophers:
Latest news: Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott still dead.wwgd: what would google do?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
In some dimensions, this will actually appear before the story.
Original article from New Scientist - (also) stolen from digg.com :)
doo do doo do doooo do doo doo....welcome to another dimension...the /. zone....
What if my Apocalypse battleship slipped into a different dimension where the speed of light is slower, and it would take me another 200 years to move my finger to the 'OFF' switch 2cm away just to come back again.
Virtual Betting on Facebook for non-geeks.
More power!!! Bring on the geekyness! I love this....being both a star trek geek and a space nut in general, I think its about time that we have been able to expand more into the world of space travel. Maybe man will finally be able to get out of the solar system.
Sounds like a half-baked Star Trek explanation.
Just doesn't sound realistic to me.
YMMV
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
Engage!!!
"Although a stable of Sci-Fi space travel"
Ah, yes, Horses in Space, I remember it well.
Not quite as good as Pigs in Space, but what is?
Does it have an "L" unit?
This should be a fun post. At any rate, the interest of the Air Force does not provide any more credibility to this story. I've seen some *really* whacky ideas based on science fiction rather than science fact move through the DOD that says more to me about the state of science education in the US than anything else.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
Needless to say, any passengers would be dead.
a "staple" in this sense: "A basic or principal element or feature."
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=staple
Someone needs to learn the difference in the words "stable" and "staple". IE "Although a stable of Sci-Fi space travel,"
dumbass!
Where can I sign-up to test something like this? Please, someone -- anyone -- get me off the fucked-up people on this crazy rock!
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
getting struck by lightning can send you back in time.
Seriously, wtf?
OK - so far, so good.
Err, what? I hope this is a joke...
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
I admit my science knowledge is somewhat lacking but what effects would a huge magnetic field have on the human body? Or would they be able to create some sort of shielding?
Nothing more to say.
Pssh, this is SO 1940's.
I call shenanigans. This is crackpot pseudo-science. gravitophotons? gimme a break...
After reading the article I am confused as to how you would test such a thing? Do you build a super ship, arm it with a magnet that will probably draw the moon into the earth and then blast off into space going faster than your body can handle thus exploding?
The nice thing about Windows is - It does not just crash, it displays a dialog box and lets you press 'OK' first. Reg
i thought it was called a warp drive because it warps the space around you, making the space immediatlely in front of the craft shorter and the space behind it bubble so at to propel you through space by riding the equalization and MORE POWER TO THE FLUX CAPACITOR WITH THE REVERSING OF THE L BEAMS POLARITY OF 1.21 SCIZOMETERS
the Event Horizon.
Maybe it'll be powered by somehow catalyzing really bad Star-Trek fanfiction.
This story is clearly an attempt to manipulate the dilithium futures market.
Aliens are attacking and the dead are turning into zombies...
If only you had a warp engine, perhaps you might actually have succeeded in getting first post.
English is easier said than done.
Anyone else find it amusing that the warp engine story appears on 'scotsman.com'? James Doohan's probably smiling somewhere...
Although a stable of Sci-Fi space travel
Staple. A *staple* of Sci-Fi space travel. A stable would be... well, I don't know what it would be, but it would be something else besides a staple.
People: spelling phonetically doesn't always work. This is getting "rediculous" [sic].
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
The hypothetical device, which has been outlined in principle but is based on a controversial theory about the fabric of the universe, could potentially allow a spacecraft to travel to Mars in three hours and journey to a star 11 light years away in just 80 days, according to a report in today's New Scientist magazine.
Wow, I just logged onto their "theoretical" website and bought me some "hypothetical" tickets. I'll be staying in the VaporWare Resorts located on the crater-rific Southern Highlands, where I'll play Duke Nukem Forever on my Cold-Fusion powered Phantom Game Console....
Sigh.
I think more "Fake" sci-fi stuff becomes reality than not, but honestly I never thought there would be a way to implement a practical FTL engine.
...
On top of this, it works exactly as specified on startrek, with the "Warping" entering another dimension,
If they figure out that they can creat some new crystal that will power such a monster, I'm going to quit my job and start designing a world that can wrap all the way around a star.
The engine is based on physical theory that doesn't exist, therefore, it's not based on anything.
There is no theory of gravity or electro-magnetism that ties these things together. If there were such a theory, it would be huge news indeed.
HCG 50a = 2MASX J11170638+5455016
11h17m06.4s +54d55m02s
What kind of materials should be used in that kind of ships? Really strong magnetic fields could have some impact over current manufacturing components for space ships. Also would be nice to have some kind of magnetic isolation, tripulation and cargo could depend on that.
Actual Google AdWord ad below article.
20 mil and I will! Learn Esperanto with 20M others.
Forget that! We could've had interplanetary ships by the 70s if Kennedy hadn't killed Orion.
...Did I skip ahead in time to April 1?
Magnetic fields producing gravity?
Damn, I guess I'll have to trash all that physics I learned in school.
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created
Yet another application of the well-known dimension-slipping properties of magnetic fields!
The craft would slip into a different dimension
Then it would be what, a one-dimensional craft?
where the speed of light is faster
And they know this how? Why wouldn't the speed of light be slower? Why would it be different?
Hah.
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
Imagine a Beowulf Cluster of Zefram Cochranes, who warp *you*!
Just be sure that you don't have a pacemaker, braces, plates, pins, screws or other assorted metal items embedded in your body. Don't wear glasses, jewelry of any kind, anything with a zipper, or metal eyelets, buttons, or rivets. Don't carry your keys, a pocketknife, a USB key, or any writing implements. For that matter, the use of nearly all office supplies is prohibited, including staplers, hole punches, binder clips, hanging files, and push pins. Be sure not to use any silverware or cookware nearby, and you can't use any tools - no screwdrivers, pliers, or hammers. Motorized electric tools are out as well.
Oh, and be sure not to use any metal at all when you build it.
Otherwise, enjoy your travels!
perl -e 'foreach(values %SIG){$_="IGNORE";}while(){}'
Clearly a warp engine in the garage would more than make up for science and progress failure for not delivering a practical flying car and dishwashing robots.
The theoretical engine works by creating an intense dark energy field that, according to ideas first developed by the late scientist Burkhard Heim in the 1950s, would produce a gravitational field and result in thrust for a spacecraft. Also, if a large enough dark energy field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension, where the speed of light is faster, allowing incredible speeds to be reached. Switching off the magnetic field would result in the engine reappearing in our current dimension.
And really, they might as well replace "magnetic" with "pork chop," for all the real science that's discussed here.
FTA: But this thing is not around the corner; we first have to prove the basic science is correct and there are quite a few physicists who have a different opinion.
Yeah. Like almost all of them. This, however, is the most reasonable statement made in the whole article.
I'm not normally on the "bash slashdot" bandwagon, but...come on. Since when are completely unsubstantiated claims that it might be possible someday to violate fundamental physical laws news? If they are, here's more news:
A method to cheaply and easily turn any given substance into gold has long been the goal of alchemy, and widely regarded as fantasy. However, it seems that one is currently in development. According to slashdot user Control Group: "the theoretical process works by imbuing heavy metals - such as lead - with the essence of the sun's emanatory spirit, resulting in the lead taking on a yellowish hue. Also, if enough essence is crammed into any given substance, the very nature of it is changed, allowing incredible transformations to be performed.
*eyeroll*
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
http://info.uibk.ac.at/c/cb/cb26/heim/theorie_rau
Including Jochem Hauser and Walter Droscher's paper (PDF) that won the AIAA prize: Guidelines for a Space Propulsion Device AIAA 2004-3700m fahrt/guidelinesforaspacepropulsiondeveiceaiaa2004 -3700.pdf
http://info.uibk.ac.at/c/cb/cb26/heim/theorie_rau
The web site referenced at the end of the dead tree edition of the New Scientist article: http://www.heim-theory.com/
wanted to do this!
Of course, this patent was only filed to sue the real inventor of the warp drive, Zephram Chocrane, when he actually gets around to inventing it.
Dark Reflection
What do they propose calling the first such warp ship, the StarShip (SS) Space Minnow?
"Come on lovey, it's only a three hour trip to Mars, what could possibly go wrong??"
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
How long before we see "Warp Engine" stickers appearing on yellow Hondas with giant mufflers and cosmetic hood scoops?
Another one bites the dust
Will it run Linux?
Contrary tom popular belief and popular belief of science fiction, there is no such thing as 'another dimenson'. What is trying to be referred to is "another universe", not another Dimension. A dimension is a way int which objects can move. No, you cannot just 'go into another dimension' because that is perfectly, impossible. It is impossible to even imagine a third dimension because, well, try it for yourself. I'm 15, and I know this shit, this article is a compelte lie. Science fiction authors often use the shortcut of 'other dimensions' simply to make their story work.
My first thought in reading about huge magnetic fields was that this is the modern-day equivilant of The "Philadelphia Experiment". If you've seen the move by the same name you know the basics. Supposedly the US Navy tested using huge magnetic fields around a ship in the 1940's to see if it would make it invisible. The story goes that the ship disappeared but also phase-shifted and some sailors on board ended up partially embedded within the hull of the ship when it finally re-appeared.
An unfortunate side effect to this extraordinary engine is that while the engine is turned on, all boy scouts will fail their orienteering merit badges.
No, but you can expand your collection with alien pr0n if you're really lucky.
This is a paper on the subject. The only thing that differentiates this from crackpot science is that it is testable. The authors won an award from AIAA for suggesting a method for testing the theory. There is no reason to believe that the theory won't be falsified.
All geeks know the philadelphia experiment.
None REALLY knows what happened.
One of the conjectures were a massive gravitational field was formed, (that was part of the goal to render the ship invisible to radar, by warping (not space warp) the radar by using magnetism, the fact that both einstein and tesla were involved makes me curious.
Is it possible they learned something here ?
... 88 MILES PER HOUR!
It should be able to, actually. Since electromagnetic transmission is at the speed of light, if we can just somehow get the entire Internet backbone running in this alternate dimension.
FTFA:
highly controversial theory that would require a significant change in the current understanding of the laws of physics
rrrrrright. So this is just physics fantasy for now, and not something "we are building".
Your courageous and selfless spelling corrections have made me a better person.
I've never heard of "The Scotsman" before (the news organization that is the source of this news), but I must say that based on their reporting of this, I'd not be surprised if they also reported that Duke Nukem Forever was on display at CES. :)
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
"The bullshit press release works by creating an intense bullshit field that, according to ideas first developed by the late scientist Rube Goldberg in the 1950s, would produce a suspended disbelief field and result in trust for the bullshit. Also, if a large enough bullshit field was created, the press release would slip into a different dimension, where the trust in bullshit press releases is automatic, allowing incredible levels of naivete to be reached. Switching off the bullshit field would result in the press release reappearing in our current dimension, where none of this bullshit makes any sense."
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
When you start going faster than the speed of light some joker with a faster warp engine in another dimension, the locals there are going to get pissed and start putting in transparent aluminum speedbumps and jersey barriers. They rip the tranny right out of your spaceship and knock your head on the ceiling faster than light. Your own grandpa will be shaking his rocket cane at you. Then we'll see who's boss, "mr what's-my-hurry".
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
This is Star-Trek physics crackpottery, in my opinion. No better than time travel and the like. What would be more in keeping with actual physics while being equally astonishing, would be instantaneous travel from anywhere to anywhere without going through the intermediate positions. This is possible because space (distance) is an illusion of perception. This is already corroborated in experiments with quantum tunneling. In certain circumstances, particles are observed going through barriers in a way that defy classical physics. Interestingly, they seem to do so at speeds greater than the speed of light. For more on nonspatiality, see this link: Nasty Little Truth About Space.
Quantum tunneling (long distance quantum jumps) is not to be confused with teleportation which just another example of Star-Trek physics nonsense. Imagine a world where you can travel from anywhere to anywhere instantly. Cheers!
"If the theory is correct then this is not science fiction, it is science fact," Prof Hauser said. That's why these guys get paid the big bucks... To state the obvious.
-FL
"A three hour cruise
a three hour cruise..."
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
***ducks***
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
The implausibility of this device moving into another dimension seems to be attracting the most interest here, but don't forget the article also claims that this is a reactionless drive. That is, it makes the ship go without throwing stuff out the back end. That is, according to physics as I understand it, also impossible.
If the cooky hyperspace dimension doesn't pan out (and I'm inclined to think it won't) but reactionless aspect of the drive worked (also inclined to think not), that would also be a boon to space travel. Having to carry propellent is a bummer.
I have suffered from being misunderstood, but I would have suffered a hell of a lot more if I had been understood.
Of all the technologies from Star Trek to rip off, why warp drive? Seems like a holographic whorehouse would be a much better use of time and energy. Now if they can just make sure to work out all of the evil Lincoln bugs...
-Arthur
Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
Sounds more like
Hyperspace to me.
Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension...
A dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind?
Seriously, if this other dimension has Joley Richardson in it and I get to roll around in engine coolant with her, then sign me up!
First Post!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
what a load of crap
There's already a movie on this.
I do security
And where are the flying cars? I was promised flying cars!
1. Build a super high magnetic field generator.
2. Use the magnetic field to propel a spaceship.
3. ??? (Now - Expect the magnetic field will magically transfer the ship to another dimension)
4. Profit!
The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Stables - Neeeeeiiighhh, we ain't got that
Of course it will!
:)
It's really being developed as an alternate dimension cable-layer for Verizon fiber
What would you expect? Actual science?
All we need now is a source of dilithium crystals! Woo hoo! Keep the Romulan Ale on ice for us, girls; we'll be right there!
...pure Science Fiction to me.
--
Humans are not yet mentally prepared for Warp speed...
"My human dad can beat up your klingon dad's butt"
Click Click Bloody Click PANCAKES!
One hopes that this would occur with the rest of the craft attached. Otherwise, you'll only be able to sell one way fares, I suppose.
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
Igniting the atmosphere was also not realistic. Scientists knew of far more energetic events in recent history (e.g. Tunguska) and even a chemical reaction of the atmosphere was not plausible.
Sustainability and energy independence essay
I wonder if they are building on the work done by the folks at Ong's Hat.
What does this button do...
Hyperspace to me.
This same story has been hashed and rehashed about once every year for the last 10 years (at least). This year its called the "Z-Machine". Last year it was called "Project Greenglow", and the year before that it was called "NASA Breakthrough Jet Propulsion" and "antigravity". Notice how they always say they are five years away from designing a test implementation. They need to put their money where their mouth is and put this vaporware to rest once and for all.
I was under the impression that strong gravitational fields slowed down the passing of time. So if time is passing slower due to the gravity, would not the speed of light also decrease relative to the rest of the universe?
Even if this idea with the intense magnetic field worked, how would they power such a thing? It would probably require a massive nuclear generator on board.
01/20/09
I suspect it is just as likly to work as smearing butter on the space shuttle to make it go faster.
If you go into a different dimension, will the laws of physics still be the same? Will you even be able to turn off the magnetic field?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
cough cough ... errr... bullsh*t ... cough.
No, imagine being run over by a warp or hover engine. (basicly; any anti-gravity engine)
You'd be squiched from the inside out, with your hart exploding and stuff! Yuk.
Hivemind harvest in progress..
TFA does not read "Dark Energy". Parent is trolling.
SANDURZ: Prepare ship for light speed.
HELMET: No, no, no, light speed is too slow.
SANDURZ: Light speed, too slow?
HELMET: Yes, we're gonna have to go right to ludicrous speed.
SANDURZ: Ludicrous speed? Sir, we've never gone that fast before. I don't know if this ship can take it.
HELMET: What's the matter, Colonel Sandurz, chicken?
I could calculate the odds of this engine ever working, but you won't like it!
Quit spreading FUD.
I knew it!
So area 51 really HAD a UFO that has been dismanteled for its technology!
That's what explains the sudden surge in new techonolgies!
(of course the little people are actually people from the future that have evolved and they accidentally jumpstarted the technologial evolution that will eventually lead to time travel...oh no, I've gone cross eyed...)
Some say he is made with ascii, others that he is eyeballed daily by millions. All we know is, he is known as the Sig
This is the kind of stuff I used to get excited about reading PopSci when I was 12. By now I've seen a little more about how the world works.
Since when does everything go well on an experimental scientific project? That's just something the backers say to get funding. If this works at all, maybe it'll work in 20 years or so.
Have fun: Join D.N.A. (National Dyslexics Association)
I may have missed something in all my reading but I don't recall any relationship between magetism and gravity. The messner effect has nothing to do with gravity it's a simple function of super conductive magnets. There have been some insanely large magnets made so if such an effect existed I'd think some sign of it would have been seen already. Gravity relates to mass not magnetism. They have been thought to be related effects but I've never heard of one influencing the other.
Do a Google search on "Burkhard Heim".
Read some of the entries. Or simply look at the domain names of the pages found.
Then take the following test to see if he's actually a revolutionary physicist of Gallileo's, Newton's, Einstein's or Feynmann's stature, or merely just another 2-bit crackpot.
HCG 50a = 2MASX J11170638+5455016
11h17m06.4s +54d55m02s
Why do people think that it is necessary to go faster than the speed of light "to go faster"? You can go arbitrarily fast by simply getting closer and closer to the speed of light. If you could reach the speed of light (which is impossible), you would be able to traverse the entire universe in no time (from your reference frame). "Warp" speed is not necessary.
That's nothing, I've had anti-gravity engines since the 30's. :-)
Blue skies, Barthy Burgers, girls...
What if the craft would slip into a different dimension, where the speed of light is SLOWER?
Its a tabloid of the worst type, your inferences are correct.
I did some brief "googling" for the answer and found that estimates were supposedly given in the paper "Guidelines for a space propulsion device based on Heim's quantum theory." but I haven't found the actual contents of the paper.
Also, anyone know what is the most intense field so far?
I was arguing with a guy in a newsgroup about new methods of propulsion that, as usual, are being "suppressed" and I was pointed to some "papers" written in the 1950s for the US DOD about using electromagnetic fields to produce gravitational fields for spacecraft etc. Even a casual look was enough to show the ideas were about interesting electromagnetic propulsion methods, which work for small models but just wont work for anything bigger. It amazed me that these papers got anywhere in the military and irritating that they had lasted for so long without someone adding a comment that it was totally unfeasible. Eh. Physical ignorance is timeless.
Bitter and proud of it.
However, what happens if John is repeating something that someone else said? This is where the elusive single quote comes in:
John said, "Peter told me, 'I like peanuts.'"
I believe in the UK it's like this:
John said, 'I like peanuts.'
John said, 'Peter told me, "I like peanuts."'
This, however, is wrong:
John said, "Peter told me, "I like peanuts.""
--- I used to moderate, then I read the -1 articles and decided having to filter through them was not worth it.
Was that speedin', officer?
My 0.02 cents
April fools is three months away.
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
Kirk: Mr. Shlock?
Mr. Shlock: No mustard Capt'n.
Kirk: Analysis Shlock?
Mr. Shlock: It would appear that Mr. Snot is about to eat a weiner without mustard captain.
Kirk: As usual, you logic is impeccible, however I was referring to the problem with the warp drive..
(slightly paraphrased from memory)
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
1. How many Tesla are we talking about, more than a pulsars?
2. I hate when half of my spaceship slips into another dimension.
3. This pronouncement seems too lame to attract funding, I wonder if it is intended as a distraction from something else
In order to have this technology work, you must have a gravatational field equal to or greater to your "wave" field. I envision this type of technology that uses the outer shell of the spacecraft to "skim" through time by generating a large enough warp field but a defense field must also be generated to "push back" against the wave field in order to ensure that the transport contents remain intact. Navigation would be a nightmare and if your field collapses, you could push out the inner field and project the high field violently into surrounding space.
-
christopher canova
software validation engineer, student, contractor
canovac@gmail.com
If it's true, then it's true. And it'll be proven as such by beating a radio wave from somewhere else (ie: go really far out, send a signal, record it, get back to earth FASTER, then show it before the signal arrives, proving you were there first, and thus travelled faster than light).
:)
If it's not... well I don't live in the US, so it's not my money going down the hole funding these guys.
These statements always crack me up. 'Obviously it can't be true because it doesn't mesh with known physics.' i.e. The math doesn't add up. It's funny - You don't have to 'see' it not working to have 'faith' in your mathmatical religion :)
Next we'll have an article about Intelligent Design, which everyone will jump all over that saying, 'without proof, there is no God'.
BTW, I'm athiest, but I don't presume that we have all the answers, or the means to understand them.
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
...'cause I always thought Warp Engines were a "staple" of sci-fi.
Please understand, no flames are intended here and I am not attempting to bash you on this. It's just that your comment can be read either way. Personally, I feel that outlandish claims require solid evidence and I feel that the Straight Dope piece (where the main advocate of the original claim backs down) more than meets the bill.
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
Isn't he the researcher that every free-energy, perpetual motion or levitation nutjob snake oil salesman sites? I don't know if his theories hold water or not, but mentioning his name is a big red flag for me.
At some time in early November of 2000, someone showed up in a few Internet discussion boards calling themselves Timetravel_0. Over time, they then laid claim to the real name, John Titor, a time traveler from the year 2036. From there, the name John Titor will forever be embedded in the folklore of both alternative-topic boards like ATS, and the Internet as a whole.
r _project.html
As many will recall, one of the first things Titor did was post pictures of his time machine and his operations manual. As the days, weeks, and months went by, people began questioning Titor about his presence "in our timeline", the seeming impossibility of the physics of time travel and his thoughts about the issues of our time. He also posted on other Internet discussion boards including the old Art Bell site. In his posts John Titor often entertained, enraged, frightened and belittled those who engaged him in mostly one-sided conversation.
On March 24, 2001, John Titor announced he would be leaving our time and returning to 2036. After that, he was never heard from again. Speculation and investigation about who John Titor was and why he was online (curiously focusing his efforts on conspiracy community discussion boards) continues to this day.
Although many find it easy to dismiss all this as either science fiction or an elaborate extended hoax, there are those who still read his information and agree that there is something very troubling about John Titor and what he had to say. I was present during many of his postings and at the time, didn't pay much attention, immediately dismissing it as just another Internet hoax. However, as time goes by, many point to current-day details that seem to corroborate Titor's stories, and even others feel his exact predictions have come to pass.
Here is one of the questions posed to him in 2001:
Q: "..but how did you manage to overcome the problem of gathering sufficient power to artificially create a micro-singularity in such a short time (sometime prior to 2036))"
A: The machine with the energy to do it will come on-line very soon. The method for doing it has already been mostly perfected in the Z machine at the National lab in New Mexico.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pages/the_john_tito
And, how did the rest of the universe learn English so quickly after Daniel Jackson tought it to the people of Abydos? Because that's a technology we could REALLY use back here on earth, especially for workers at 7-11.....
"Although a stable of Sci-Fi space travel..."
stable: (n.) a farm building for housing horses or other livestock.
Hmm...
Perhaps he meant...
staple: (n.) A basic or principal element or feature.
1. I watched a TV program a while ago about places people thought were "haunted", turned out they could recreate those people's paranoid behaviour just by sitting them in a cubicle inside an electromagnet.
2. Many years ago I read something (which was probably a hoax) about military experiments involving huge magnetic fields and a warship, where the ship temporarily teleported onto land somewhere, came back, then a few minutes later the crew went insane and everyone died.
I've got a feeling I'm not the only one that read that story. Even if it did work, a warp spaceship would likely fry its own electronics and the brains of the crew.
Like this?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
This story should be filed under sciencefiction.slashdot.org.
Oh wait, that already happened in Event Horizon using the same design for the engine.
I've been waiting for this for a long time. Maybe it will allow me to go back in time and make my first marriage never have happened.
Every time you call tech support, a little kitten dies.
This reminds me of a series of books by the Dutch writer Felix Thijssen (Siro's Island) where he describes a secret group using flying saucers whose propulsion is based on the theories of the german scientist Burkhard Heim.
I never knew Heim actually existed and has even published such theories!
Check e.g. http://www.geocities.com/felixthijssen (it's in Dutch, sorry).
It makes me think the editorial policy must have changed to read this article. Or maybe the editor is on holidays and they let the work experience intern handle this edition. Or maybe I blanked out for a few months and now it's April?
Anyhow, what bunk.
From several previous NS articles, we know that Magnetars have HUGE magnetic fields - they have the strongest known magnetic fields in nature. Yet they don't seem to be slipping into other dimensions and warping around the universe. But maybe we can only see the Magnetars who's magnetic fields are not strong enough to do that. That would make the field required for warp pretty damn strong. About, oh 100 to 1,000 trillion times the strongest field we can create in the lab today.
Well that should be easy to test then.
This is basic science at its finest.
Someone comes up with a theory that may permit FTL space travel. There isn't any known way to test the theory with the current techniques.
Sometime later someone comes up with a way to test the theory to see if it works or not (we are here).
If the theory works, the nature of human society changes forever as we become a true spacefaring race.
If the theory fails to hold up then we've disproven it and learned something new about the nature of the universe in the process (or possibly just confirmed a different conflicting theory).
By all means - bring on the experiments/tests!
Natural != (nontoxic || beneficial)
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PT O1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm &r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,960,975.WKU.&OS=PN/6,960,975&RS =PN/6,960,975
This patent was pointed to in a previous /. post.
So, we can have warp drives but only if we change physics as we know it? Good luck with that one boys.
"Physics is to math as sex is to masturbation." -R. Feynman
It's such a shame that crap like this gets on Slashdot but real technological breakthroughs don't. For example, how many of Slashdot's readers are aware that antimatter is currently being produced and stored in quantity at CERN and soon in facilities in the US? Antimatter is the ultimate in energy storage. Creating an antimatter rocket is trivial compared to regular chemical rockets. All you need is a sufficient supply of antimatter and a way to store it and we now have both.
How we know is more important than what we know.
But was the Earth not considered flat at one time as well. Just because this is way ahead of anything we can think of scientifically does not mean it can not exist. I personally love the idea of it working in my lifetime. I think inertial dampeners need to be developed along side it or else.... splat? Did many of you read the article? "It's our job to prove we are right and we are working on that."
Let's see... was it a Dr. Who episode that pointed this out? Maybe it was someone on slashdot.
I create a very intense magnetic field... (We'll ignore that neutron stars and/or other collapsed goodness also creates intense magnetic fields and those aren't popping around like pinballs.) I create a very intense magnetic field which as everyone knows is electro/magnetic and is propogated at best at the speed of light.
I turn off my intense magnetic field or heck, for that matter I turn it on. At some point the field doesn't become strong enough to pop me into this FTL dimension or it will be strong enough in a tiny bit of time but not *now* because of that light speed propogation. At the interface between strong-enough and not strong enough I am going to see *extremely* odd effects like, oh I don't know... "Hey, how come my body is over here but the bleeding stump of my leg is over there?"
Now, I'd love to learn that once again I had not studied hard enough in my physics classes (or don't recall the Dr. Who episode correctly) but I'm not gonna hold my breath.
-CZ
#6,960,975
/. post. Seems to "operate" similarly.
This patent was pointed to in a previous
There's a joke in there about the barn-door paradox, but I can't seem to find it .. any assistance greatfully[sic] excepted[sic].
Fight Spammers!
This reminds we of the phlogiston engine I heard about a while back. It uses a crystal piramid catalyst to react phlogiston with the universal ether. The resulting field pushed against the inherant tension of dark matter to propel a vesel. Of course one needed tremendous phycic power to stear such a vesel, but with proper dyanetic training that's not unreasonable. Aparently the project was well under way when the government cut funding for fear such a craft would discover the truth about UFOs.
from the detailed article: http://www.livejournal.com/users/groovychk/85968.h tml
"This will require a huge rotating ring placed above a superconducting coil to create an intense magnetic field."
Although a stable of Sci-Fi space travel
Staple!!!!! A STAPLE of sci-fi! Sheesh!
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Remember, there has been no substantial proof of other dimensions (or parallel universes) yet. The speculations in this particular area of science have gone on and on, until most people just assumed there had to be more dimensions. It is physically and mathematically possible, but there has yet to be made any reproducable proof.
-------
Userfriendly? Sure it is, unless you aren't computerfriendly!
/me to a classmate on FreeBSD
The problem is we have the most powerful magnet on Earth. It's in Gainesville FL and it doesn't change gravity. The most powerful magnet ever detected was a magnetar of many billions of tesla and that didn't change gravity. We've observed very powerful magnets for years they have never ever slipped into alternate dimensions or changed gravity.
Colonel Sandurz: Prepare ship for light speed!
Dark Helmet: No no no, light speed is too slow!
Colonel Sandurz: Light speed too slow?
Dark Helmet: Yes, we're gonna have to go right to... ludicrous speed!
What im wondering is whether this is, dimension as in moving in the direction with which we can't move as we are now, 4-D. Or is this all just a bunch of wind up our skirts, meant to make half of us go gaga for a theory that hasn't even hit it's first phase.
this is obviously a hyperspace motivator.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
This Popular Mechanics article also speaks of something (AC Gravity) which also cannot really be explained using current quantum physics.
Now, IANAQP (I am not a Quantum Physicist), but the two models seem to be somewhat similar to me as a lay person who reads a lot about physics. One (Hyperdrive) deals with rotating magenetic fields, and the other (AC Gravity) seems to deal with rotating electric fields. Physics tells us that these are aspects of the same fundamental force, electromagnetism.
I've seen a lot of complaints about how 'unrealistic' this idea is, but could it just be that the physicists in question are uncovering new portions of reality? Could the 4 additional dimentions needed for the Hyperdrive (mentioned in the New Scientist article) be similar to the 7 additional dimentions used by M Theory?
But now we can't find it and I'm going to have a hell of a time explaining the absence of the wall on the north side of the building.
The biggest reason that people are starting to take this proposal seriously is because it predicts the masses of the fundermental particles to within the accuracy of experimental error. Our current standard model only gets between 1 and 10% close to this accurate. I'm sure without this fact the theory could just be dismissed. I think some people here, and also other news sites reporting this are viewing the multidimensional thing incorrectly as well. You won't suddenly disappear with a pop into some wormhole looking thing. If you were on board a craft like this or watching from outside then everything would appear pretty normal... just the physics behind it are working in 8 dimensions. I'm all for an experiment once the guys now working on this get a good theory published. The new scientist article explains all this pretty well and it's quite understandable. But still... you'd have to make a magnetic field 500,000x as strong as earths to repel earths gravity, and more to get 'anti-gravity', which I don't really think is easy to do on a large scale with the materials we have.
if the magnetic fields they're talking about are anything like what I think they're talking about, that ought to wipe out any information stored on magnetic media anywhere in the vicinity, not to mention do some fun stuff with any power delivery systems, metal structures, electronic equipment, or nearby plumbing.
Yea, you go first. I'll be home playing video games. Let me know when you get back from Mars.
And, how did the rest of the universe learn English so quickly after Daniel Jackson tought it to the people of Abydos?
They didn't, the Tardis is translating for them telepathicly.
For the perfect anti-Unix, write an OS that thinks it knows what you're doing better than you do and let it be wrong.
Dr. Steven Hawking was getting a tour of the Paramount set for Star Trek: TNG. It was as a result of this tour, and his professed appreciation for Trek, which resulted in his cameo appearance in one of the later episodes (and no, I'm not a big enough Trek geek to remember the title).
Anyhow, at one point during his tour, they were working their way through Engineering, looking at the main warp core, and he signalled they should stop. He tapped on his communicator for a moment or two, and indicated:
"I'm working on one of these."
... by the Dew of Mountains the thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shakes, the shakes become a warning
Your Millenium May Vary
http://pcblues.com - Digits and Wood
Maybe this is what they were trying to do in [fnord] The Philadelphia Experiment.
I have been facinated by this [fnord]idea since I heard of it.
crazy tales of it included people seeing the Eldridge in one place and then another hundreds of kilometers away; notes describing the horrors of the screams of sailors fused to the hull before scuttling the ship; all sorts of strang, terrible, and neat [fnord] stuff.
Given that this [fnord]project was at a time when there were plenty of [fnord]skunkworks projects (umm, atomic bomb?) I would think that there is probably some [fnord]credibility to the ideas that the military scientists were trying to do something with crazy new ideas in [fnord]physics.
Nevermind if they were trying to bend light around the ship, or teleport it, this was the time of "damn it all, do what it takes" physics.
I am not saying that the scientists were being needlessly reckless, but it was a time of much tension and [fnord]revoloutinary ideas with unlimited budgets.
|plastic....or gasoline?|
Try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_experime nt#Discussion_and_debate_of_the_story as well.
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
And yes they'll be using this new warp drive to land on the surface of the Sun. It's solid you know! If it's posted on the Internet it must be true. They'll land at night when it's cooler.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
"The theoretical engine works by creating an intense magnetic field that, according to ideas first developed by the late scientist Burkhard Heim in the 1950s, would produce a gravitational field and result in thrust for a spacecraft"
;-D
Of course a magnetic field that strong would pull all of the fillings out of your teeth but heck, some sacrifices must be made!
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means
1. Apparently reasonable and valid
Just because something doesn't appear reasonable and valid, doesn't mean it actually isn't
But does it go to 'ludicrious speed'? ...or 'plaid'? Indeed if we attain 'plaid' then we'll really have something!
Switching off the magnetic field would result in the engine reappearing in our current dimension. Wow! I just imagine that: they turn off the engine, and it reappears in our current dimension without the ship. :D Or even better, they turn on the engine, and engine disappears! =^_^=
[PDF]The Physics of Burkhard Heim and its Applications to Space Propulsion
Fun reading!
And in some other dimension there are people thinking "If we create a hydroquantamic field, we can pass through to a different dimension where we won't constantly be traveling so fast....geez its tiring to move this fast all the time...going from planet to planet err from squinoid to squinoid in the blink of an eye..err squatch of a cubula."
No kidding.
"In a world without walls and fences, who needs Windows and Gates?"
The physics/chemistry that define everything about us and our spaceship would change if you change the speed of light. Can't be sure that atoms would be stable at all, you might instantly turn into plasma if you enter that dimension.
Like a government would ever let this secret out if it was real. Screw going to mars, they would rather sit a strike force in the middle of another country instaneously with the press of a button.
If this was remotely real we'd all be dead just for posting it.
"Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension, where the speed of light is faster, allowing incredible speeds to be reached."
How exacltly do the scientists find the right dimension for FTL travel in the first place? Trial-and-error? I'm sure that method would work really well, especially every time the ship ended up in a dimension where those crazy new laws of physics ripped it apart.
they will have to name the first warp capable spaceship "Enterprise"
I bet the outcome will be very much like Star Trek.
That is, if you think of the movie where Starfleet wants to chase the Enterprise with the transwarp prototype ship...
(For those who didn't watch it, the prototype ship doesn't make it to warp speed, although the reasons have little to do with bad physics.)
http://www.hfml.ru.nl/levitation-movies.html
My amazing wife - Artist, Author, Philosopher - Laurie M
The Warp Drive comes with a free copy of Duke Nukem Forever.
paintball
I'm betting that our scifi fetish for warp speed won't pan out in a way that living passengers can survive.
What I think we can realistically achieve is longevity research, or hibernation, or biological and medicinal work by which we can learn to live in space for long periods of time. I don't think the voyage to the stars is a matter of FTL. I think it's a matter of patience.
Not so sexy, but making the transition would do a lot to assure our species' long-term survival.
"There is no reason to believe that the theory won't be falsified."
T.S. Kuhn would say that every theory ("paradigm", to him) has its anomalies, but these are usually insufficient to spike it. In other words, "falsifications" in science are not all they are cracked up to be. For instance, Newtonian dynamics had anomalies in predicting the motion of Mercury that weren't resolved until the 1800s. But the paradigm was so powerful and implied so much that scientists used it anyway, as it turns out.
Here we have a different situation. The paradigm is so complex that there is finally a test case several decades after it is first promulgated. I would be interested to know more, but it looks like it takes an act of genius just to create an application of the theory.
Read the Wikipedia on Burkhard Heim. He's a Tesla sort of character. In one way, it is hard to call such men crackpots; in other ways, it is hard not to. The wiki on his theory is also enlightening.
Q: What did the comedian say to the crowd?
A: If I knew, this joke would be funny.
There must be 40 posts here stating that this breaks the fundementals of physics. um *eyeroll*
So how could ANY of you comment on the fundementals of physics here?
The fact is that the Non Local effect of Quantum Mechanics is pretty much completely unknown to us except for the FACT that real teleportation experiments have been achieved through theories based on these effects.
How many of you rolled your eyes at teleportation only to be shown the Quantum door that made it happen?
Why is Teleportation any more whacked than Warp Drive?
I didn't even notice that.
Of course I will use the excuse that 'b' and 'p' are similar and you can just turn one upsidedown to get the other. hehe
About your sig:
I know what you are trying to say, making fun if wingates, but would the lack of walls mean privacy doesn't exist as well?
Why don't you guys have friends or journals?
buy' ngop
Yeah, i'd start investing in companies that make anti-matter storage bottles, because the stuff is literally everywhere and we need to catch-em-all Pokemon style with our magic anti-matter-collector jars. We've got anti-matter just leaking out of everything, dying to be used to answer all of our clean/renewable energy problems.
While AM research is cool, making it and storing it is still energy expensive compared to the release of am/m reactions. (last time i looked.. im happy to be out of date! )
It seems unlikely that we'll get sustainable, net-gain am/m reactors until after we've figured out sustainable, net-gain fusion. At least with fusion, we have plenty of hydryogen looking for something to do, and keeping a bottle of it isn't exactly an exotic phyics problem. Not so with AM.
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
Certain kinds of smart people tend to ignore things that they don't find relevant. Not to imply that I am in any way a genius, just a smarter-than-average guy, but I can do a lot of smart things, yet I often leave my articles of clothing in other people's rooms and forget all sorts of everyday information. I am aware of where my clothes are, but my mind usually doesn't find it important enough to remember.
Surrealism: You have two giraffes. The government pays you to take harmonica lessons.
Would this be safe for people with pacemakers?
They have edited it to say "magnetic field" instead. Maybe they read your post!
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
Note that nobody's planning to make rockets out of this stuff any time soon...
[1] At least not if you're referring to stuff like antihydrogen. There are lots and lots of antiprotons produced, and they're "stored" by swinging them around and around the collider ring until they hit something (which is the reason they're produced in the first place).
[2] Of course, "in quantity" in this case means basically "more than one atom". I'm not sure just how many atoms they plan to store at a time, but it's certainly not nearly enough to do anything useful with (except possibly for spectroscopy). I mean, they purge the antihydrogen trap by turning off the fields and letting the antihydrogen annihilate against the trap walls. Poof! With little to no effect on the trap walls themselves (aside from probably accumulating the usual radiation damage that high-energy detectors like these have to put up with over time, of course).
-Erf C.
Cthulu always calls collect...
Looks like we might hit that mark a little bit earlier then expected. I wonder if a heavy drinking scientist named Zefram Cochran might join them and help them get a working prototype. First contact may occur then.
But I'm definately not looking forward to the eugenics wars...
My Gawd WTF...
Because we've spent decades watching Star Trek. We want phasers and transporters and tractor beams, but more than all of that, we want to believe that some day, even if it's after we're all dead, humans will break the light barrier. Anything that gives us a glimmer of hope is exciting and unless and until somebody does make a warp drive work, we will continue to be excited every time there is a whisper of an idea about how to do it.
It wasn't Star Trek, it was Event Horizon.
For example, how much energy would be required to create this "large magnetic field"? If it's on the order of the amount of energy required to create a wormhole, this idea is just as much a non-starter.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
Yea, dont worry "the Network" is working for the pr0n.
I thought all you guys just couldn't write good english
Dr. Carlos Moll, over at The Trinity group been working on the project for years. He may be reached at 4075098363 during his tea breaks.
All I can say is.. wow, five years isn't so long to wait and see if it'll actually work, we could be on the brink of a new age of exploration, meet strange new people, and offer them free upgrades in their nuclear technology.... So we have a choice of 1. Works and we set up a new starbucks in every alien civilisation we meet. 2. Doesn't actually do anything because it's nonsense. 3. Works but we don't understand why and it goes wrong and we all die in some kind of hilarious star trek style [insert random physics here] mishap. Yay!
So do you need a conventional propulsion system to push you you once you are in "hyperspace"?
Then you'd just need a mystical drug made from alien worms to allow you to see into the future for navigation...
In the end, I think the thing being accelerated will burn up from the vibration of the intense field--there's so much energy something can absorb.
when Teleportation was demonstrated?
you ppl are idiots. You probably think the moon landing never happened either.
The fact is that Warp Space Time is a real physics theory in the Quantum domain for which almost none of you dullards have any idea.
I mean if real science were based on whether or not it seemed intuitive to the common idiot, then I guess the world would be flat.
*eyeroll* at stupid people on this board who can't fathom the reality of science from real geniuses.
I swear to God, sometimes I wish I could Force-choke people through the Internet.
Also, it will be made of candy.
"Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension,"
Which dimension? X, Y, Z, or t? Because, you know, it already occupies those (and quite a few more, if you believe some versions of string theory) already, just by sitting there.
Sorry, but when I hear a phrase like "slip into another dimension", the first thing I think of is bad '50s sci-fi or hastily scribbled Star Trek technobabble. This is not scientifically meaningful terminology AFAIK.
Perhaps they mean it will slip into an alternate universe, or a domain of spacetime where the laws of physics are different -- but I hope that domain contains more than one dimension, or it probably won't be of much use.
It's probably easier than building a bridge on Jupiter to get a working Spindizzy.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Wormhole Induction Propulsion: http://www.nidsci.org/articles/davis/wormhole_indu ction.html
As far as I can tell, the physics required for WHIP is not so speculative as for this magnetic warp dirve concept, although it's still far from actually being proven to be feasible. It's basically just using extreme high intensity magnetic or electrical fields to manipulate the energy density (which will create gravity wells just as well as solid matter) in regions of space. In this case, for the pupose of curving spacetime into a hypercylinder to induce the formation of a wormhole.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
A method to cheaply and easily turn any given substance into gold...
Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Switching off the magnetic field would result in the engine reappearing in our current dimension.
I say they create a switch that won't go back off and we christen the ship by giving a ride to current members of the US Congress.
they may even make sense...in another dimension
before anyone gets all excited about this. Look here:a rp.html
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/research/warp/w
Right below the article it says you can buy the magnetic ring at shopping.com :)
Maybe the air force doesn't have internet connection eh?
Yeah, but the other us(es) in that dimension will get all twitchy about us(') using up their bandwidth.
1. Pick some cool impossible technology from sci-fi (such as warp engines, antigrav, free energy, transporters). 2. Invoke dark energy 3. Convince venture capitalists/military to buy into your technology ??? 4. Profit
Oooh! I don't believe she'd take much of that, Cap'n.
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
dimensions. The dimension would just ned to be smaller. Bither dimension would have the same amout of points.
Now, if string theroy is correct, we might be able to find out which point in pour dimension relates to which point in a different dimension.
QED.
For our slow students:
If a dimension is 1/10 the size of ours, then 1 mile(or 1 kilometer of you can't count past 10) in the other universe would be the same as 10 miles(or kilometers) in our univers. So you wuold appear to be travelling 10 times faster.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Damn you and your reasonable explanation! This is slashdot, not some reasonable forum for insightful discussion.
What about the rest of the craft (and crew)?
There is a Universal Life Value Check it
Plutonium is a heavy metal and is chemically as toxic as other more common heavy metals. Pu is not a strong emitter of beta or gamma radiation, but does emit high quantities of alpha radiation. Although alpha radiation does not have the penetrating ability of beta and gamma radiation, it is still radiologicaly toxic if placed within extremely close proximity to tissue i.e.: within the body/ingested or inhaled.
.5g to .25g ingested can cause death due to acute radiation exposure of the intestinal tract.
Ingestion of plutonium particles is less of a hazard than inhalation due to the fact that ingested insoluble (non salts) particles will eventually pass, whereas inhaled insoluble particles at the appropriate size will remain in the lungs for a much much longer period of time. Radiation toxicity is related to cumulative exposure. IIRC, even less than 40mg inhaled Pu can cause enough damage to the lungs to cause death within a matter of just several weeks.
The knob on this magnet will go all the way to 11.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
Even if they got that engine working tomorrow in some form of enteprise warp 4 machine, we would have to get very far from earth to test it unless we want ,as a minumum, to alter the orbit of the moon, the tides etc to be afected by such a powerful and new gravitational force, the problem is that to get far enough from the solar system to to f**ck it up we would still 30 years using the normal engines that we have today...and in anycase we can only use them to send small satelites and not massive power sources and torus to generate such strong margetic fields that would greate those theoretical gravitational particules . And that assuming that theory is correct...which is all they are trying to do anyway...so no we are going to have to wait a bit longer to kick some Klingon ass.
PS someone working on a cloacking device?
Mac toys and accessories blog
What would the effects of such a field be on the passengers and crew??? Sure, the ship gets to Mars in 3 hours, but crashes on the surface -- because all the ships occupants are either dead or useless puddles of goo . . .
And people wonder why math is hard? First you're telling me that the speed of light, c, is constant. Now all of a sudden it isn't?
Glad I graduated already because the math my kids are going to have to di is going to be a bit tricker.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
Holy shit...They've gone to plaid!
"But this thing is not around the corner; we first have to prove the basic science is correct and there are quite a few physicists who have a different opinion.
"It's our job to prove we are right and we are working on that."
Both quotes show that the guy missed something in his science education (or was misquoted). As scientists it's our job to try our damnedest to prove that we are wrong. If we're lucky, we fail to do so.
It's not possible to show that the science is correct. The best he can hope for it to be unable to show that it is incorrect.
Support SETI@home
This article is pure BS. The reason why is simple: if you can travel 11 light years in 80 days then you have time travel (backwards in time) unless everything we know about physics is hopelessly wrong. If someone had either (1) invented a time machine or (2) demonstrated that everything we know about physics is hopelessly wrong, they wouldn't be bragging about how they'd invented a means of getting to Mars in 3 hours.
-- SIGFPE
Use of inertial propulsion configurations would limit necessary particle generation. http://sthigpen.freeshell.org/stardrive-links.html ..toward a quantum sparc plug.
---
SA Thigpen * KL1FE * http://sthigpen.freeshell.org/
oh my a rarely seen dr. demento reference..... and he even got it right :)
I'd like to know.
So if we produce a large enough magnetic field, matter will slip into "another dimension." It's not a dimension of sight and sound, is it?
The question I have is how large this "large enough" magnetic field would have to be. I mean, the Earth produces a magnetic field. I can only presume that the sun has a larger one. From what I understand about magnetic fields, you can really only make them bigger in one way. Making them stronger also makes them occupy more space. Making them occupy more space requires you make them stronger. I welcome any insight people have into this.
This whole thing just sounds like sci-fi(not the emphasis on fiction). Wouldn't we have heard some mention that Einstein had been disproved?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Birds don't have vertical stabilizers, hydraulics or numerical computers and they fly just fine...
Oh well, what the hell...
"A frog inside a doughnut field" Sounds like a Quebec Tim Hortons menu - yech...
Oh well, what the hell...
> The theoretical engine works by creating an intense
> magnetic field that...would produce a gravitational
> field and result in thrust for a spacecraft. Also, if
> a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft
> would slip into a different dimension
And if even more power is applied, the magnet field will be powerful enough to attract a female for actual copulation.
But that remains untested theory.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I think you're talking about the NHMFL - it's in Tallahassee, at the Seminary West of the Suwannee.
they've mentioned in several episodes that the gate itself is one giant superconductor, so this does seem to imply that either naquadah is or that it can be made into one
All the magnets powerful enough to slip into other dimensions have already done so. So of course we don't have any.
After reading a couple papers associated with this idea, I have made two conclusions from the following. We will find aliens. We will try to kill them. You take a weapon, say...a nuke and put into motion across the span and detinate it while it is in motion, does anyone have an idea about what this would do? I do. The magnetic field holding the transport coil in the other dimension would cease existing. Al of the sudden an explosion is back in the 4th traveling at close to the speed of light.
Contemperary physics say that the faster something is moving the bigger it gets. Hmm.. a nucelear explosion traveling at close to C, hey that should be big enough to obliterate a sun sized planet right?
1. This is how we destroy the aliens we find
2. It is how they destroy us.
From TFA: "Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension, where the speed of light is faster..."
Ummm... let's go back to the basics of magnetism, certain metals are attracted to magnets, what is going to prevent something on or in a passenger/pilot of the craft to not be stuck to the ceiling or wall of the craft when the engine is on? I mean, I would imagine that the magnetic field is going to be huge to generate such propulsion. I would hate to see the metal fillings in your teeth or the iron in your blood ripped out of you.
That's not what the grandparent post says at all. You're going off on a rant that has little to do with what the post actually is saying.
The post says that the poster is *confident* that the theory won't hold up. That's a personal prediction, not an absolute dismissal. And given that most radical theories like this one turn out to be wildly wrong, that's a very safe bet just based on history.
The best ideas in science come from R.A.H.
Wiki on RAH
1949 Sixth Column. Unifying field theory, silent high speed vessels.
In Communist China, Microsoft blogs you!
Why are women so complicated? Find out how little I know here.
How could you possibly test such a theory? The fields required would destroy any computer or living being within. They already have problems doing MRIs, I can't imagine that much stronger of a field.
This has definitely already been made into an excellent cinema Here
-circut
--
The sooner you fall behind, the more time you have to catchup.
- fortune
The headline says "a three hour trip". The truth is that this is just hype for the upcoming reality show: Gilligan's Island - The Next Generation.
They've already got Paris Hilton to play Ginger and David Spade to play Gilligan.
c is a constant. It is equal to the speed of light in a vacuum.
The speed of light as it passes through other materials can vary.
Clear, Dark Skies
Good? Since when does a magnetic field, intense or otherwise, have anything to do with a gravitational field?
There's no evidence. There's no theory. It's just something somebody made up.
Einstein thought that they did. The ultimate goal of general relativity for Einstein was a Grand Unified Theory of Everything. In Einstein's conception, all forces (not just gravity) were the effect of curvatures in space-time. Since all energy was curvatures of space-time, so was all matter. Heim just expounded on Einstein's theories and he did so in a way that actually predicts the masses of fundamental particles. Thinking hard on relativity was what he did to distract himself from the pain of from where his hands used to be after they were blown off in an explosives lab accident. The same incident made him deaf-blind, so he preferred isolation rather than colaboration and pretty much spent all his time on the subject. This same isolation made his theories relatively unknown for a very long time.
The editorial blurb is hideously sensational, though. Even if we do prove that EM fields can alter space and produce gravitational effects, you're a long way from creating a practical form of propulsion. On the other hand, we'd at least have hope of a reactionless drive.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
I'm not certain you understand what falsifiable means.
If this theory is scientific, it is falsifiable, and if you can prove the falsifiable statements true, then the theory itself cannot be true.
There are plenty of scientific theories that, at the time, sounded stupid.
The speed of light is constant is one such idea. It is also a falsifiable statement, because to disprove that the speed of light is constant you need merely cast light at a speed faster than c.
So when someone uses the term falsifiable in context with, say, Intelligent Design, it means the proposition "Life requires an Intelligent Designer" is only scientific if you can make testable converses from the original proposition.
There is only one way to create a falsifiable experiment: "Life does not require an Intelligent Designer." You can't run any experiments or have any observations to prove either, so ID is not scientific.
On the other hand the proposition of evolution, "Those most fit survive, and reproduce," has an easy falsifiable statement: "The least fit survive and reproduce." We can actually create experiments and show that the least fit don't survive and reproduce, see that yes, it is true (mostly) that those most fit survive and reproduce. Another way to test the statement is to say, "The most fit die and fail to reproduce".
Another way
GPL Deconstructed
that makes no sense at all.
If I travel millions of miles along dimension 7, but my coordinates in dimensions 1,2 and 3 don't change, then I have not moved in any measurable sense.
It does not matter how "small" the other dimensions are - by definition, movement along one dimension is orthogonal to movement along the others.
Clear, Dark Skies
Here's an experiment...
.max
Show the cited article to the people running the high magnetic field research program at Florida State U down in tallahassle.
See if you can hold your breath longer than they can laugh.
Who knows, with the mire in the USPTO. But what is it with Patent Offices in central Europe? Einstein from Bern, Droescher from Vienna...
The GP doesn't understand the meaning of "falsifiable". I think he just meant to say, "It would be found to be false."
A while back I proposed a way to make ID a falsifiable theory, and hence "scientific" (even though it might probably be later found to be false).
http://slashdot.org/~ShakaUVM/journal/121956
Who needs this warp crap? All you need is a properly arranged cup of tea and some other widgets.
--Coward
Heck with the science for just a few minutes. Let's talk SciFi. The way I understand the "Warp Drive" as proposed in most SciFi, notably in StarTrek from where I think the title "Warp Drive" first appeared, C is not physically exceeded. A "Warp Drive" is also not the same as a "Hyperspacial" or "Extraspacial" drive, as the local spacial dimensional properties are distorted rather than escaped from. My understanding of this idea is as follows.
Multiple gravity wells of sufficient strength to distort space in compressive rotating wavefroms are continuiously created and collapsed at the optimum non-destructive proximite points as related to the craft and in the direction of intended travel. One then is pulled toward the gravity wells and/or uses auxiliary propulsion methods to push the craft in the same direction. Through balancing and counter balancing of the multiple gravity wells one is able to "surf' only the crests of the primary or convergent folded compressed space "waves" thus not really exceeding but still "cheating" the speed limit of C. I'll bet wipeouts would really suck. Beware of the Under Toad!!!
Matthew
200 meters per hour!
What keeps it in the air?
A very strong headwind.
Goddammit! Am I the only one here who can spell? You guys are driving me nuts!
Ever notice how all the exciting stuff is always 5 (not 4, not 6!) years away? ""NASA have contacted me and next week I'm going to see someone from the [US] air force to talk about it further, but it is at a very early stage. I think the best-case scenario would be within the next five years [to build a test device] if the technology works."
Bread rifles just don't cut the mustard - while pulses like lentils or beans can fit into an appropriately bad pun.
A time warp has occured!
April fools day has fallen a miraculous 3 months early!
George Bush + Linux = "I will not let information get in the way of the fight against Windows"
They say form follows function...like a toilet. If it looks like it does something by some discernable method, then maybe it does! Take a flying saucer. You know, the one you read about and the one your crazy Aunt Mildred swore landed in her back yard and two one eyed purple aliens got out to peek into her windows. Inside one of these could easily be a torus and a means to carry its rotation, not to mention means to power the whole apparatus. Assuming that, the remaining problem is one of inertia. It is well and good to go so fast, but not so nice if you end up as a spot on the floor from the forces arising from your relative accelerations. Unless the ship and its magnetic fields themselves are engineered to dampen inertia, or an improved Ning Li/Podkletnov device is used. Dr Ning Li was working on a quantum mechanical version of Yuri Podkletnov's gravity shield until she was harrassed out of our country and back to China. I suspect the Chinese were VERY happy that we were so stupid.
I just spent an hour looking over the abstracts of Heim theory on http://www.heim-theory.com/ feeling like I suspect a dog would feel if it tried to read a book. Heim's work may definitely be a retreat into a sort of extended quasimathematical fantasy, something all too understandable for someone who lost his hands, sight, and most of his hearing at the age of 19.
But if he's right, this is perhaps the most powerful story in the history of humanity. That it took a blind, handless man to "see and feel" the fundamental structure of the universe would be breathtaking, and even more astounding that those who could see and feel could not be convinced to follow on his journey.
The best part about this is that this story has an end. Heim theory makes specific predictions, and a single experiment could prove or disprove it. If he is right, Newton, Einstein, and Goedel will definitely have to move down a chair.
Bistromathic drive? Sorry, Douglas, but isn't that what G-string theorists do in pizza pits? If time turns out to be an illusory function of fewer than two dimensions wrapped around Italian restaurants, perhaps it will be possible to entertain the notion without lap dancers. Until then, a c note should do.
``Tension, apprehension & dissension have begun!'' - Duffy Wyg&, in Alfred Bester's _The Demolished Man_
There has been some remarkable ideas---ideas, mind you---of what possibilities might exist for the reality we haven't been able to test in laboratories yet. These are ideas that real physicists come up with as possibilities that don't violate too many laws of physics to be utterly implausible.
We know that gravity bends space. We know that mass and energy are interchangeable. We know that mass creates a gravity field (that bends space.) What about massive energies? Does it have a gravity field? What if we took the equivalent energy in a 2 ton ball and stored that in a capacitor? Would its mass (as observed in relativity) increase by 2 tons? Incredibly, yes.
That's pretty whacko. But consider the possibilities. Using only energy, you can BEND TIME AND SPACE.
What can you do? Can you set up weird gravity fields that don't look like point sources? What about the acceleration due to gravity? Is that limited by relativity? What if we effectively cut out a region of space by surrounding that with a hollow black hole. What are the rules on whole regions of space as they travel through other regions of space? If it can move near the speed of light, and we are moving near the speed of light in that piece of space, are we moving 2x the speed of light compared to objects outside of that region of space? What if we had several layers of space each travelling within another region of space near the speed of light? Can we obtain infinite speed?
What about taking a region of space and effectively patching it somewhere else in the universe. Isn't this a wormhole of sorts? And are those possible?
String theory says that there may be more than 4 dimensions. If space is curved, then we can effectively travel from one spot to the other without covering as much ground as we would've in regular space. But what if there are different rules? What if with gravity we can put a kink in a strategic location in space thus making space curve in a way that makes this kind of travel easier?
You see, there are a lot of possibilities, and they aren't all that unreasonable. Unfortunately, we can't perform these experiments with today's technologies. Or can we?
Just remember how absurd people thought Einstein was for suggesting that light waves are really very tiny massless cannon balls. That earned him the Nobel Prize, and was the concept that gave birth to Quantum Mechanics, which Einstein himself thought was absolutely absurd. Physicists spend a great deal of time calling each other names when in the end, they end up proving the other guy correct by trying to disprove him.
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
Another week, Slashdot editors fall for more blatant crackpottery. This one doesn't even pass the laugh test on the second law of Newtonian mechanics.
It might be easier to make the warp drive by using protons instead of electrons for the current. I'm not sure if this is what they do on the Enterprise.
And heck, with the Orion, we could lift an entire moon/marsbase complete with automated refineries/factories in a single launch, instead of building a piddly little temporary space station over several decades. We've already detonated thousands of nukes aleady, but this would be for something worthwhile.
I didn't realize Kennedy was behind killing the program. Gives me another reason to dislike him.
Which is the most appropriate coversheet?
Since so many people are claiming it's all bunk *without actually reading the frigging paper*, here's a link:
f ahrt/hqtforspacepropphysicsaip2005.pdf
:-)
http://www.uibk.ac.at/c/cb/cb26/heim/theorie_raum
I don't claim to understand the math, but they appear to be elaborating on yet another paper that I haven't looked up yet, describing the device in question. It appears to be a detailed analysis of the actual forces generated by the device, with real honest-to-gosh numbers and all that...
Would someone who actually might understand this stuff, please comment on this paper? Everyone else posting (myself included) have no clue and I'd like to hear some *informed* opinions
ERROR 144 - REBOOT ?
...you do actually slip into some hypothetical other dimension, and discover that the speed of light in this other dimension isn't faster, it's SLOWER?
The article says that the intense magnetic field of the Z-pinch machine might be able to test the theory on whether these gravitophotons can be generated from split-up virtual electron pairs. If this gravitional force were to be observed under the extreme magnetic field of the Z-pinch, then it would be consistent with the Heim theory's claims. Somehow this reminds me of Hawking's radiation. Hawking said that the virtual photon pairs from Heisenberg's could be split up by the powerful gravity of a black hole's event horizon. So isn't this latest paper on Heim's theory then stating something analogous to that, only using extreme electromagnetism to split the virtual gravitophotons instead of using the extreme gravity to split the virtual photons? Could we say that "Heim Gravity" is a counterpart/cousin to Hawking radiation? Comments?
of course the article is from the Scotsman.
"Although a stable of Sci-Fi space travel" ? Maybe should have been "staple" and not "stable" ? Don't know, though - perhaps Christ was born in outer space.
How many beans make five, anyhow ?
Switching off the magnetic field would result in the engine reappearing in our current dimension.
What about the rest of the ship and its crew?!
No sig for you!!
Fear of falling.
New mod option wanted: -1 DrunkenRambling
I read the articles. Nothing mentioned whatsoever about one IN DEVLOPMENT. It's all theoretical. What MIGHT be possible. What machine MIGHT be useable for experiments. This is not IN DEVELOPMENT.
Just a stupid misleading sensationalist title for this story.
From Heim-theory website:
(Speaking of the extra 3 dimensions in the six-dimensional theory):
(Emphasis mine)
This is starting to remind me of that oft-referenced Timecube website.
It would send you to another dimension, where the speed of light is faster and pigs actually do fly.
Unladen swallows?
That's one of the reasons why the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is being build at CERN (Genèva, Switzerland). One of the particle they hope to find is the Higgs particle, which, according to theory, is the particle that exerts gravitation.
According to planning, somewhere during the summer of 2007 the beams should be operational and the first collisions should be possible.
From the article:
"It's our job to prove we are right and we are working on that."
No, it's your job to find out if it's right. I feel that therein lies a big problem with theoretical physics nowadays. They seem to be more interested in proving their new crazy view of the universe than actually finding out what the correct way to view the universe is. Then again, this is not a new problem. It still bothers me though.
Don't you think we would have heard about it at least in university science education if this was even remotely possible? A discovery that we could generate gravity fields as easily as that would be the biggest scientific and technological leap forward we could imagine. Just imagine the everyday consequences of being able to switch off/on gravity locally.
Apart from that - a sufficiently strong magnetic field will affect a person's body chemistry to say the least; my guess is that this would quickly be fatal.
Thinking about it, but it doesn't sound logical. Recently Astronomers found magnestars, stars who act like an enormes magnet. If our sun would be like that, then i had to pin my car to the ground or it would be swallowed by our sun. These Astronomers see things we currently cannot simulate in labs, like blackholes etc. Since they can see those magnetstars (or magnetars) it means that heavy magnetics are still in our dimension vissible. And they also don't travel at high speed. I don't rule them out because electric effects might have some impact. However another effect is more lickely, it will go like this: Huston put on the magnetic drive. 10.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2 - 1 ! Engines are on we are clear to go. Hack damn what happened to huble it's drifting away. Damn our GPS is drifting away Ohno we got a satelite attracted an heading for impact in about 60 seconds. And so in moments the sky was cleared from satelites. whaahahaha (evil laughter) ;)
I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid. You're afraid of us. You're afraid of change.
But they are not measurable by physical instruments and have an informational character
You just have to believe in them. You do believe in them, don't you, Brother? Oh, and we need more money now (passes the hat)...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
After an inmense prestation the spaceship was drawn in hyperspace. No distance was actually coverd in this first experiment, but everyone wonderd why the spaceship came back with a frog on board. Could it be that the magnetic hyperspace is actually occupied by Frogs?
8)
However ... those who actually bothered to read the article found this:
"But this thing is not around the corner; we first have to prove the basic science is correct and there are quite a few physicists who have a different opinion. [...] It's our job to prove we are right and we are working on that."
This is a polite way of saying ... that the whole thing is such an oddball interpretation of current physics theory that it needs needs solid experimental proof as a sanity check before we can talk further.
Sort of puts a different light on the whole thing, doesn't it?
Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension, where the speed of light is faster, allowing incredible speeds to be reached.
Still sounds like fiction to me.
Dimensions are theoretical concepts, emphasis on theoretical.
Mankind is moving forward, or at least moving, on the basis of luck and accident.
Defining Statistics and Social Research
ah ... but how will you see an actual "faster than light" ship...
Yup, brings a totally new meaning to wandering around like a lost mental patient on the parking lot.
Can't wait till Google implements it!
It will have the answers before I even thought of the question!
Then your beowolfed nano-pda will tell you where your car is before you lost it!
Of course, it won't work in North Korea. In North Korea, only old people use nano-pdas.
Defining Statistics and Social Research
But what about the fuel economy?
Very interesting. I remember this discussion, but I think it was about a space vehicle powered by an anti gravity device. Wait a minute <>search<> ... here we go. Here's the slashdot post.
I am sooooo sick of taking the city bus to and from work every god damn day!
If i wanted to hear bullshit, i'd go to church.
Ouch. Once we begin to rely on alternate dimensions, things have reached a sad state of affairs. I wonder what happened to the so called ion drive that was supposed to have a constant smooth acceleration which could theoretically reach some amazing speeds here in reality?
It is a joke, right? Did anyone here ever take a physics class?
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Correction: There seems indeed a kind of Warp Drive as extension to the anti grav drive possible (according to the theory).
f ahrt/hqtforspacepropphysicsaip2005.pdf (someone else posted it already in this thread) is a modern paper about the drive (2004). Its a joint work from an austrian and a german Phd student.
;D According to the paper, the magnetic fields needs to be somewhere in the range of 20 to 30 Tesla, which is quite a lot.
l gives a table about natural magnetic fields and claims man made magnetic fields can get as strong as 40 Tesla.
1 4220120.htm the actual record for a magnetic field is claimed as 35 Tesla there.
This link: http://www.uibk.ac.at/c/cb/cb26/heim/theorie_raum
The paper is 15 or some sides and quite understanable, if you don't look to close at the formulas
Just for refference: the earth has a magnetic field with the strength of ~1 Gauss.
1 Gauss is 1 * 10E-4 Tesla, so 10.000 Gauss is 1 Tesla and 20 Tesla is 200.000 times the earth magnetic field strength. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauss
This page: http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/ask/a11654.htm
Another site I found is this: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/12/0512
angel'o'sphere
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
"Switching off the magnetic field would result in the engine reappearing in our current dimension"
...we think
Point B: The speed of light is NOT relative. It's always c. Always, always, always.
That reminds me of the somewhat unknown and bizarre phenomena called Cherenkov radiation:
"Cherenkov radiation is emitted whenever charged particles pass through matter with a velocity v exceeding the velocity of light in the medium."
New Scientist has posted the full article for free now. And they asked me to re-direct from my post.
Ginny Keller
What makes kato especially enticing and useful is its unique chemical composition. Being of an organic nature, kato at first seemed comparable to petroleum-a vestigial remnant of ancient indigenous life. On further examination, however, it was discovered that kato is actually alive in some sense, although no more sentient than algae.
The importance of kato derives from its reaction to high temperatures. When burned, kato passes through several stages of recomposition before losing its volatility. Each of these stages produces an impressive amount of energy, but it's what happens at the subatomic level that proves the most beneficial.
In the course of its chemical breakdown, kato emits a tachyon field that can be harnessed to allow an object (such as a vehicle) contained within the field to tunnel (i.e. move from one place to another without passing through each increment of space in between), thereby travelling at superluminal speeds. Space travel without kato energy would be like walking from New York to Los Angeles versus flying there in a Concorde. As you can imagine, interplanetary travel without kato energy is entirely impractical.
I have a Ph.D. in physics and know a bit about magnetic fields. I'm not a particle physicist, and I don't pretend to know a whole lot about unified field theories. However, I have a few issues with the article that I would like to point out.
The article said that this warp drive idea was based upon generating a sufficiently large magnetic field. It is extremely difficult to generate large magnetic field in the laboratory, as anyone who has worked with particle accelerators or has studied nuclear fusion can tell you. This is part of the reason why we do not yet have working commercial fusion reactors for electrical power plants. People have been saying we are only a few years away from developing fusion power plants since the 1970s, but anyone with a realistic viewpoint will now tell you that scientists really don't know when we might be able to develop a working fusion power plant. It still takes too much electrical power to contain and heat the nuclear fuel in current fusion devices for this to be a practical power source. If we haven't been able to make a decent fusion reactor in the last 30 years, I'd say we're a really long way from making a warp drive.
This guy I knew in graduate school once told me that it was really funny to stick your head into the huge magnets in the particle accelerators at Brookhaven National Lab. Apparently the magnetic field was so strong that it affected your vision. According to my friend, the strong magnetic field made it appear as though the lights in the room were blinking on and off. I've never tried this myself so I don't know if it is true. The senior physicists could have been playing a joke on him, or he could have just been pulling my leg. However, if it is true, then any hypothetical spacecraft powered by gigantic magnetic fields would need to be unmanned due to these weird effects.
I think it would also be difficult to put current computer techology on this spacecraft since it could be screwed up by the big magnetic field.
We know about a lot of situations in astrophysics where huge magnetic fields are generated. If making a huge magnetic field is all there is to creating a wormhole or warp drive, then why don't we see pulsars and neutron stars popping in and out of existence throughout the known universe, when their huge magnetic fields warp the fabric of the universe and send them hurtling across space and time?
I'd really like to be able to travel to other solar systems like on Star Trek, but I just don't see it happening any time soon. I've never heard of these scientists in the article before, so I'd take a wild guess and say they are on the fringes.
Wheres da /. speling chker? Some of us engeeneers never learnd to spel. At leaste dare is on in squerrel male.
Which would seem pretty likely, actually. Boy, slip into a dimension where electromagnetism doesn't work - bummer!
Go here. Absolutely amazing stuff.
Although...if you're finding that you can start (as opposed to kill) conversations at parties with geeky stories like that -- hey, I want to go to those parties. Where are they??
Because we all know that Tesla would whip up a coil in no time that would not only take you faster than light, but would also transport you through time
Now to be serious. If a coil of 6.7 meters is required just to TEST this theorom, I don't see it going very far very fast.
The military seems to have expressed issue. What is odd is that NASA (this is kinda their area) has not. It's very easy to get a general to commit to a project by claiming that if we don't the Russians/Chinese/Terrorists will get it first. Scientists typically take a little more convincing on the fundamental physics end of things.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
A magnetic field that straong could pull you ferrous particles in your blood. Scientists now have a machine capable of levitating mice and frogs.
Didn't you see X-Men 2?
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
Just think if you could polarize this process and capture an equal number of matter and anti-matter. Put these traps on opposite side of a ship and you have slipstream propulsion.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
Not only that but the you couldn't use any electronics besides the actual power plant. All your computers and switching equipment would have to be optical.
What they are describing is effectively the same as an EMP weapon. And perhaps THIS is the real reason the military is interested in it.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
Sorry you can't have a force that acts selectively on the earth vs sharp objects in your laboratory.
All I can say is if the thing works, they'd better build it in the basement.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
No, you would just use a quantum communication system that would communicate simultaneously across the universe through particle entanglement.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
No doubt kids will start installing "gravity woofers" in their year 3020 Civics so when they're cruising based your planet, everyone can feel it.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
But any gravitational field strong enough to provide near light speed propulsion would rip you apart from the inside out.
Perhaps the REAL trick of near light speed drive is to make your vehicle and it's passengers massless. At that point you could do simple magnetic propulsion and even the weakest fields would get you where you are going VERY quickly (rockets wouldn't work since you no longer have mass). Since you are massless, you have no G forces. There would be no problem with "staying alive" since strong and weak forces hold your body together. Only planets, suns and moons are held together by gravity.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
Since this theory was originally proposed in 1950, isn't it more likely that Roddenberry based his FTL drives on this theory??
Personally, I've always felt the Star Trek "subspace" concept was ridiculous. The straightforward way to travel faster than light is to bend space time around your vehicle. That way you are travelling while standing still. No nasty relavitistic effects to deal with.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
What is it with spinning that gets people so fixated? Perhaps you were unduly influenced by Superman and the Superfriends.
http://www.seanbaby.com/superfriends/supermanb.ht
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
No doubt the power will be bought by Enron, than delievered by Halliburton to the facility on a "cost plus" basis.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
It would have to be an anti-gravity field. Otherwise, it's only purpose would be slamming you into:
a) The Earth
b) The Moon
c) The Sun
And of course their is the side effect of turning your spaceship into a trash collector for orbital debris.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
Or you could just heard all the people to hollowed out volcanoes and than blow them up with hydrogen bombs.
Oops, gotta go. The Scientologists are the door.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
If all it takes is a spinning high power magnetic field then a magnetar would be a natural spaceship. Heim's theory might explain why the magnetar in the article below is moving so fast.
0 1/09_magne.html
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2002/
No, you're talking about a different issue. You're talking about knowing what people might have done. That's actually not hard to predict with reasonable certainty, if you understand people and their motivations etc. So, you can say with some assurance that it's unrealistic to expect people to have done that. However, the discussion was about how a physics model could be incomplete, and that the gaps in our knowledge could be absolutely fatal, leading to the end of humanity, then I think it's ridiculous to say that we should just plough ahead anyway. Incomplete models generally can be differentiated from well understood ones, so if there's uncertainty, it's probably wise to step back in this case. Perhaps I overstated it a bit when I said "no matter how unlikely", but I did say that it makes sense in general to discount highly improbable issues.
A Description of the RAN [Russian Academy of Science]'s Fight Against Pseudoscience in the Mass Media, by Ye. B. Aleksandrov, Academician of the RAN.
you had me at #!