Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 beta 3/9/83; site sdcrdcf.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!harpo!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!jonab From: jonab@sdcrdcf.UUCP Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: Death Star weapon. Message-ID: <1088@sdcrdcf.UUCP> Date: Thu, 17-May-84 12:39:24 EDT Article-I.D.: sdcrdcf.1088 Posted: Thu May 17 12:39:24 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 19-May-84 00:12:27 EDT References: <12537@sri-arpa.UUCP> <1514@dartvax.UUCP> <436@denelcor.UUCP> <1104@qubix.UUCP> Reply-To: jonab@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Jonathan Biggar) Organization: System Development Corporation, Santa Monica Lines: 91 In article <1104@qubix.UUCP> steven@qubix.UUCP (Steve Maurer) writes: > > > FTL is *IMPOSSIBLE* DO YOU HEAR ME???? > YOU HAVE A BETTER CHANCE AT MAKING A PERPETUAL MOTION MACHINE > THAN YOU HAVE AT MAKING AN FTL DRIVE!!!! > assert(flame). People who live in grass huts shouldn't throw flames! Before you flam at someone, make sure you know what you are talking about also. > I find it somewhat humorous (in a sick sort of way) that people > who are supposed to be as intelligent as SF readers, can totally > ignore the findings of Einstein -- without even bothering to read > or understand them. I find it humorous (in a sad sort of way) that people who are supposed to be as intelligent as USENET news readers ;-} can totally ignore the findings of Einstein -- without even bothering to read or understand them. 1) There is no intelligence prerequisite to reading SF or USENET news. People who read SF tend to be above average in intelligence, but that is not necessarily so. Your flame is only an ad hominim attack against someone who was posting an article in fun anyway. > What Einstein discovered, is a new (UNBREAKABLE) law: much like > the Second Law of Thermodynamics. And ALL THE FUTURE SCIENCE IN > THE WORLD, will not change it, or allow one to get around it > somehow. Let's examine what Einstein "discovered": Einstein didn't discover anything in his Theories of Relativity. What he did was postulate a new physical world view based on a couple of simple postulates. 1) The laws of physics are unchanged with respect to any observer in a inertial reference frame. 2) The speed of light is measured as a constant for all observers. First, we must realize that Relativity is only a very well substantiated theory. No one has and probably no one EVER will prove it as true. The second postulate above, is one of the laws of physics mentioned in the first postulate. However, that postulate only comes from the observations of researchers in the late 19 century, not as a fact handed down by divine inspiration. These observers have only been able to make their measurments of the speed of light in a non-inertial reference frame, where all bets are off and the Special Theory of Relativity does not apply. Thus, we don't even know what physics is like in a TRUE inertial reference frame, because we don't live in one, and no matter where we go, we will NEVER find one. (There is always an acceleration due to gravity that makes the fram non-inertial, no matter where we go.) So Relativity can be called a very good guess. > The "hyperspace" excuse, arises from an incomplete understanding > of what Einstein discovered: you cannot "go around" the distance, > because the very act of APPEARING at a place before light gets > there, is exactly equivalent to going backwards through time. If you assume that travel by hyperspace is the process of leaving normal space and re-entering elsewhere, then Relativity precludes that form of travel, IF the theory is true. (Actually I wonder whether the theory holds up when one takes it to the limit with singularities like infinite velocity.) If hpyerspace travel is, instead, a method of changing the laws of physics in the local area of space, (such as increasing the speed of light in a limited area), then Relativity could hold and yet from an outside observer, it would appear that one was travelling faster than light. (The observer would probably see you arrive before you left, but that can happen even when you travel at less than the speed of light because of acceleration. retract(flame). PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, do not think that just because a new Theory has been discovered that changed or disproved the old theories, then it must be true. We have only extended our knowledge of the universe, we have not proved that there is nothing more to be learned. Jon Biggar {allegra,burdvax,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,sdccsu3}!sdcrdcf!jonab P. S. If you are wondering what my qualifications are, I have a B. A. in Engineering/Physics. However, I would need many, many more years of study before I could fully appreciate the works of Einstein. That stuff is hard to read!