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  1. #1
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    Question Do you think FTL travel will ever be possible?

    I thought I'd ask and since I couldn't find another thread on the matter... well yeah.. here we go.

    I've always wondered if it's possible for humans to travel faster than the speed of light.
    Einstein said we can't, and people (as far as I know) tend to trust his equations as if it were the absolute truth.

    Are we still doing research in this? Or do we simply rely on equations made decades ago?
    As much as I've looked around, for as long as I can remember, nobody ever casts any doubt on whether or not
    Einstein was wrong. He could have been, and probably was in a few areas. What do you think?


    *According to Einstein, nothing with mass can travel faster than the speed of light (Photons)*

    If FTL travel is in fact impossible, do you think we'll find a way to go around it? Think Wormholes, Warping space etc.
    Last edited by mmoc87911d0539; 2013-05-17 at 08:43 PM.

  2. #2
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by The Real Greenbean View Post
    I thought I'd ask and since I couldn't find another thread on the matter... well yeah.. here we go.

    I've always wondered if it's possible for humans to travel faster than the speed of light.
    Einstein said we can't, and people (as far as I know) tend to trust his equations as if it were the absolute truth.

    Are we still doing research in this? Or do we simply rely on equations made decades ago?
    As much as I've looked around, for as long as I can remember, nobody ever casts any doubt on whether or not
    Einstein was wrong. He could have been, and probably was in a few areas. What do you think?


    *According to Einstein, nothing with mass can travel faster than the speed of light (protons)*

    If FTL travel is in fact impossible, do you think we'll find a way to go around it? Think Wormholes, Warping space etc.
    Depends what we are talking about when you say FTL, you mean breaking the light barrier via sheer propulsion? Probably won't happen honestly.

    Warping of space/time...possible, who knows!

  3. #3
    The Lightbringer Zethras's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Real Greenbean View Post
    I thought I'd ask and since I couldn't find another thread on the matter... well yeah.. here we go.

    I've always wondered if it's possible for humans to travel faster than the speed of light.
    Einstein said we can't, and people (as far as I know) tend to trust his equations as if it were the absolute truth.

    Are we still doing research in this? Or do we simply rely on equations made decades ago?
    As much as I've looked around, for as long as I can remember, nobody ever casts any doubt on whether or not
    Einstein was wrong. He could have been, and probably was in a few areas. What do you think?


    *According to Einstein, nothing with mass can travel faster than the speed of light (protons)*

    If FTL travel is in fact impossible, do you think we'll find a way to go around it? Think Wormholes, Warping space etc.
    We recently discovered the Higgs Boson, which gives all particles mass.

    So what if we find a way to temporarily neutralize the Higgs Bosons within a certain area of space? Everything would be mass-less, and therefor wouldn't be bound to Einsteins equations.

    If we can imagine it, we can most certainly achieve it, it's human nature to adapt, achieve, and overcome.
    Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.
    So I chose the path of the Ebon Blade, and not a day passes where i've regretted it.
    I am eternal, I am unyielding, I am UNDYING.
    I am Zethras, and my blood will be the end of you.

  4. #4
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Zethras View Post
    We recently discovered the Higgs Boson, which gives all particles mass.

    So what if we find a way to temporarily neutralize the Higgs Bosons within a certain area of space? Everything would be mass-less, and therefor wouldn't be bound to Einsteins equations.

    If we can imagine it, we can most certainly achieve it, it's human nature to adapt, achieve, and overcome.
    Do we actually know that it gives particles mass? I thought the existence of a particle that was similar to it was detected, not that it gave particles mass.

  5. #5
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    If the Higgs Boson gives all particles mass, shouldn't Photons have mass? Since it's a particle and all.

  6. #6
    The Lightbringer Zethras's Avatar
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    Photons are weird in the sense that they're both particles and waves at the same time.
    Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.
    So I chose the path of the Ebon Blade, and not a day passes where i've regretted it.
    I am eternal, I am unyielding, I am UNDYING.
    I am Zethras, and my blood will be the end of you.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by The Real Greenbean View Post
    If the Higgs Boson gives all particles mass, shouldn't Photons have mass? Since it's a particle and all.
    We're not 100% sure photons are massless, it's just their maximum possible mass is stupidly small.
    Shahaad , Kevkul
    <Magdalena's pet>

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Zethras View Post
    If we can imagine it, we can most certainly achieve it, it's human nature to adapt, achieve, and overcome.
    No, not really. No amount of imagination will break the laws that govern the universe. As we discover more about the universe, we may find ways to achieve certain feats which were not possible before. However, this does not mean that anything can be achieved; we are still bound by laws we know and do not know. Such a statement is faith based.

    ---------- Post added 2013-05-17 at 01:47 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Zethras View Post
    Photons are weird in the sense that they're both particles and waves at the same time.
    All matter has wavelike and particlelike properties simultaneously, not just light. We've managed to perform diffraction experiments on electrons.

    I get a headache just trying to visualize this.
    Quote Originally Posted by Zantos View Post
    There are no 2 species that are 100% identical.
    Quote Originally Posted by Redditor
    can you leftist twits just fucking admit that quantum mechanics has fuck all to do with thermodynamics, that shit is just a pose?

  9. #9
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    no,
    Since C is a constant regardless of how fast the observer (or traveler in the case) goes.

  10. #10
    The Lightbringer Zethras's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Garnier Fructis View Post
    No, not really. No amount of imagination will break the laws that govern the universe. As we discover more about the universe, we may find ways to achieve certain feats which were not possible before. However, this does not mean that anything can be achieved; we are still bound by laws we know and do not know. Such a statement is faith based.
    Faith based?

    First off, i'm an atheist, so no, it's not faith based, humans by our nature find ways to make things work. This is a fact.

    Second, of course there are limits to what can actually be achieved, I was referring to things that are proven to not be impossible/theoretically impossible.
    Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.
    So I chose the path of the Ebon Blade, and not a day passes where i've regretted it.
    I am eternal, I am unyielding, I am UNDYING.
    I am Zethras, and my blood will be the end of you.

  11. #11
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by The Real Greenbean View Post
    I've always wondered if it's possible for humans to travel faster than the speed of light.
    Very unlikely if you mean velocity faster then light, not some space jumps or whatever.
    Quote Originally Posted by The Real Greenbean View Post
    Einstein said we can't, and people (as far as I know) tend to trust his equations as if it were the absolute truth.
    You know it wrong. We belive experimental data only and it sais Einstein was right.

    Quote Originally Posted by The Real Greenbean View Post
    Are we still doing research in this? Or do we simply rely on equations made decades ago?
    We do hell a lot of research since Einstein till this day and don't plan to stop it any time soon.
    Quote Originally Posted by The Real Greenbean View Post
    As much as I've looked around, for as long as I can remember, nobody ever casts any doubt on whether or not
    Einstein was wrong.
    Except like tousends websites on internet and hunderts of books? Look better.
    Quote Originally Posted by The Real Greenbean View Post
    He could have been, and probably was in a few areas.
    He was wrong in many areas and we found it out, cause we don't belive what someone said, we od experiments.


    Quote Originally Posted by The Real Greenbean View Post
    *According to Einstein, nothing with mass can travel faster than the speed of light (protons)*
    photons not protons.

    Quote Originally Posted by The Real Greenbean View Post
    If FTL travel is in fact impossible, do you think we'll find a way to go around it? Think Wormholes, Warping space etc.
    Maybe. Atleast it would be much more likely then normal travel at speed of light.

    Quote Originally Posted by Zethras View Post
    Photons are weird in the sense that they're both particles and waves at the same time.
    They have properties of both wave and "particles"(in old context). But this applies to anything, including all matter particles we composed of. It's just how machnics at low scales work.
    Last edited by mmoc331d9c635d; 2013-05-17 at 08:56 PM.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Zethras View Post
    Faith based?

    First off, i'm an atheist, so no, it's not faith based, humans by our nature find ways to make things work. This is a fact.

    Second, of course there are limits to what can actually be achieved, I was referring to things that are proven to not be impossible/theoretically impossible.
    Well you don't need to be religious to hold faith in things, since faith is just belief in something without proof (for instance, I have faith that we'll find a unified theory of physics eventually). But I digress. I see where you're coming from, and I seem to have misinterpreted what you were getting at. I apologize.
    Quote Originally Posted by Zantos View Post
    There are no 2 species that are 100% identical.
    Quote Originally Posted by Redditor
    can you leftist twits just fucking admit that quantum mechanics has fuck all to do with thermodynamics, that shit is just a pose?

  13. #13
    Deleted
    The proton typo, I fixed that

    About C being a constant, are we absolutely 100% sure this is how it works, or is it our best guess so far? Do we really have all the hard facts? I'd also like to believe that humans have a way of going all "We're humans, we made the calculations, so it must be right" while it COULD work in an entirely different way, only that it's too complicated for us to see it first hand..

    Sorry 'bout the grammar and all. I'm Swedish with too little sleep and too much beer.
    Last edited by mmoc87911d0539; 2013-05-17 at 08:58 PM.

  14. #14
    Eistein's theory of relativity has been proven correct time and again through experimentation so we'll probably never go faster than light in the normal sense. However, warping space, wormholes or other possibilities exist in theory for circumventing that restriction.

  15. #15
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive

    Not faster than light per se, but the famous warp speed does arrive at a destination faster than the light.

  16. #16
    The Lightbringer Zethras's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Garnier Fructis View Post
    Well you don't need to be religious to hold faith in things, since faith is just belief in something without proof (for instance, I have faith that we'll find a unified theory of physics eventually). But I digress. I see where you're coming from, and I seem to have misinterpreted what you were getting at. I apologize.
    No harm done.
    Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.
    So I chose the path of the Ebon Blade, and not a day passes where i've regretted it.
    I am eternal, I am unyielding, I am UNDYING.
    I am Zethras, and my blood will be the end of you.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Sigma View Post
    no,
    Since C is a constant regardless of how fast the observer (or traveler in the case) goes.
    Eggheads already have theories on how to overcome this: http://techland.time.com/2012/09/19/...ht-warp-drive/

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Balazaar View Post
    Eistein's theory of relativity has been proven correct time and again through experimentation so we'll probably never go faster than light in the normal sense. However, warping space, wormholes or other possibilities exist in theory for circumventing that restriction.
    I believe the opposite. In 500 years, if the human race is still around, and we continue at out current tech advancement rate - I think his theories will only be funny footnotes in history books.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Eliandal View Post
    I believe the opposite. In 500 years, if the human race is still around, and we continue at out current tech advancement rate - I think his theories will only be funny footnotes in history books.
    That would be like saying that Newton's ideas are a funny footnote. In the end, Newton's ideas will always be taught because they're a sufficient approximation to reality for the scales in question. Similarly, we know Einstein's theories are valid for the scales they describe. I think it much more likely that if Einstein's theories are found to be wrong or approximate, they will still be taught as convenient approximations much like Newton's work.
    Quote Originally Posted by Zantos View Post
    There are no 2 species that are 100% identical.
    Quote Originally Posted by Redditor
    can you leftist twits just fucking admit that quantum mechanics has fuck all to do with thermodynamics, that shit is just a pose?

  20. #20
    Deleted
    That's what I was getting at. It's hard for me to believe that one person can nail it down just like that. Tech has always blown our minds.
    Space-warpin' ships could be exactly like what smartphones would be to people living in the 30's.

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