Using magnetic field to jump to another dimension.

Reminds me of an science fiction story I read years ago, where they made a gate only to discover that the speed of light in hyperspace was slower.
 
Reminds me of an science fiction story I read years ago, where they made a gate only to discover that the speed of light in hyperspace was slower.
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Wouldn't that have made it Hypospace?
 
Beausoleil said:
Reminds me of an science fiction story I read years ago, where they made a gate only to discover that the speed of light in hyperspace was slower.
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Actually, there's a problem inherent in this. It's not possible to do a one-to-one mapping of two Minkowski spaces with different c's onto each other unless you adopt a preferred reference frame. So any effect that transfers you from one to another can basically act as a way to determine what that preferred reference frame is. Seeing as how relativity (that is, the ABSENCE of any prefered frame) came out of electrodynamics, it would be quite remarkable if the violation of that relativity came from something like a large magnetic field. The only other alternative to a prefered frame would be an infinite variety of "hyperspaces", one for each possible starting reference frame you're in.
 
Beausoleil said:
Reminds me of an science fiction story I read years ago, where they made a gate only to discover that the speed of light in hyperspace was slower.
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There's a novel with a truly awful story but a similar premise called Redshift Rendezvous by John E. Stith. In the book, it turns out that the speed of light in hyperspace is only ten meters per second, but the way hyperspace maps onto normal space means you only have to move a matter of miles to cross interstellar distances, so it's still an effective means of travel.

Jeremy
 
I'm curious about braking...would such a ship re-enter realspace at near-c?
If so, how would it slow down fast enough to get anywhere? And A rather effective planet buster if aimed right.
 
Soapy Sam said:
I'm curious about braking...would such a ship re-enter realspace at near-c?
If so, how would it slow down fast enough to get anywhere? And A rather effective planet buster if aimed right.
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Heck, go a little faster, and you'll destroy a star. You won't come out of it looking too good, either, but it can be done.
 
Ziggurat said:
Nature produces larger magnetic fields than we can hope to ever create. If large magnetic fields can create effects that contradict most physical theories, then there should be signs of such effects out there in the universe already. That seems like a rather more natural place to start.

Pulsars (spinning neutron stars with magnetic fields) have been observed with fields in the range of 10^14 gauss and higher. I think Z-pinch machines can achieve something on the order of 10^8 gauss, which isn't anywhere close to as large. So if we can create new effects in the lab, they should be happening out there in the universe already.
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I hate to quote an entire post and then say little, but you make a point that seems to be overlooked often. Very well said!

We keep looking at certain facets of the universe that can be exploited in ways that seem improbable and we don't see such improbabilities naturally occurring (not that they don't exist, mind you). Does anyone here believe (note - not 'think') that infinitesimal humans are capable of creating a Quasar (supposedly the most massive and energetic thing in the entire universe)? That would be maniacally insane.

Our best bet is black holes for extra-universal travel, but in the process they are, by definition, destructive. A black hole punches a hole in space-time, what does one think it does to matter-energy in the process? We already know - it obliterates it! And there is no experiment that can deduce the structure and laws beyond the event horizon - none. So how does one utilize something about which we can gain no information (expect surface phenomena)?

It will take more than massive magnetic fields to allow humans to 'gate' around the universe.

Yes. Boy, am I cynical...
 
Putting a pulsar in your car improves gas mileage . My mother's hairdresser's dog told me.
 
Whereas those people who can't even spell 'physicist'
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I sure know how to spell it: natuurkundige. Question is: can you pronounce it? :p

It occurred to me that you may have said this ironically. I apologize if this is the case.
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Yes, but still... There is a seriousy undertone...
Can you come up with a way they can explain to the average layman who pays for this research through taxes what the benefit of this research is without resorting to any science fiction claims? :)
 
Earthborn said:
Yes, but still... There is a seriousy undertone...
Can you come up with a way they can explain to the average layman who pays for this research through taxes what the benefit of this research is without resorting to any science fiction claims? :)
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Oh I can.

"This could potentially invalidate a theory of physics. Trust us, that's a good thing. No really, it's how science works....... Oh, um, we will be able to make the Enterprise!"

Damn, I thought I had it there.
 
Bone_Vulture said:
I'll believe it when I see it.

By the way, what is the Scotsman's current status as a reliable news source?
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Indeed.

However I would like to point out some things that no one seems to be commenting on:

Firstly: This article is a summarised account of a New Scientist article published on NewScientist.com. For those unaware New Scientist is a British Science magazine. It is well read amongst the academic and lay science communities. That doesn't mean it should be taken with more veracity. It IS a good read.

Secondly: The reason why this article has come about is because the paper proposing the drive won an award from the AIAA. This is a serious body whose job is to promote aerospace engineering. They certainly thought that the paper was noteworthy enough to award a prize in 2005.


Thirdly: Heim's theories are not well understood because he refused to publish in English (see linked article). What testing has been completed suggests that it seems to work for some things. Just because the underying physics is poorly understood (because it wasn't written in English and is a little opaque) doesn't mean that it is wrong. I would say that Heim's work is an intriguing hypothesis that is yet to be proven.
If you like maths take a look.

Fourthly: The proposed experiment will test aspects of the Heim-Grotscher drive. If the experiment fails we should rejoice and throw another failed hypothesis in the library. If it works ... we should rejoice and buy tickets to Mars.

I would post links to all this, but apparently, because I am new I am not allowed to. PM me for more info.
 
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Melendwyr said:
If it's entropy, yes. Or hideous alien entities who hate all other life and who can only access our dimension if we help establish a link - them too.
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Then you're opposed to life? Life speeds the entropy death of the universe by some small amount, after all.
 
jj said:
Then you're opposed to life? Life speeds the entropy death of the universe by some small amount, after all.
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I doubt that life increases entropy any signifigant amount. mabye he's against the sun. wasting all that energy by radiating it into space and all. it's a crying shame.

the latest discovery magazine issue mentions stars called magnetars, which are apparently neutron stars with immense rotating magnetic fields, which occasionally reorganize, releasing immense energy. something like the amount of energy the sun makes in a quarter million years. if that much magnetic energy doesn't punch through to another dimension or whatever the engine is hoped to be able to do, I doubt we'll be able to make something that does.
 
Earthborn said:
My humble calculations tell me that a three hour trip to Mars is not faster than light, though...
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I don't think they plan on travelling above the speed of light for the whole trip - they still rely on accelerating/cruising/decelerating. If the top "speed" was 2c the average speed could still be 20mph for all it matters :)
 
TobiasTheCommie said:
http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=16902006

You've got to be s*****g me.-...
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I think, that the theory has been around for more than a decade by now. I read a book (only first 3 chapters) by Physicist Kip Thorne from CalTech in 1996, about 'wormholes' . Theoretically, if you can create exotic matter or negative mass, then you can travel from earth to any distant star or galaxy in a distance of about a few meters. Wormholes supposedly form a tunnel with the distance target, that they are (origin & destination) actually position adjacent to one another. This implies that to travel through a wormhole to faraway destination can be done in a small time frame. This sort of theoretical Physics is scary , imaginative but fascinating.
 
antihippy said:
I would post links to all this, but apparently, because I am new I am not allowed to. PM me for more info.
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Antihippy, can you post the links like this?

www . verycoolwebsite . com

I would appreciate it! Thanks!
 
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