I believe quantum entanglement has shown promise of FTL communication, at least.
Paratus and TastesLikeChicken did a good job of following up why this wouldn't work.
Hopefully we will have FTL drives and communications one day (soon, I hope). But right now we don't have any way of even theoretically doing this.
Heh. I didn't even notice this thread was still ongoing.under normal matter a, 100% rigidity would be impossible due to the nature of electrostatic forces and the emptty space between them...
however, theoretically would black hole matter, which is infinitely dense exhibit 100% rigiditiy, and therefore possibly be the only matter capable of transmitting at light speed? consequently, would the speed of sound in a black hole = the speed of light?
In science fiction it has. However, irl it doesn't seem to work that way. While Einstein's "spooky action at a distance" has been proven as fact it hasn't been shown that QE can be used to transmit information at FTL speeds and it seems unlikely to be possible.I believe quantum entanglement has shown promise of FTL communication, at least.
I was thinking of this one, but upon further reading it sounds like the promise of FTL communication may be premature...
http://www.scientificamerican.com/b...uantum-weirdnes-wins-again-entangl-2008-08-13
There remains, however, some debate about what is the true speed at which information is carried by a light pulse. Traditionally the signal velocity of a light pulse is defined as the speed at which the half peak-intensity point on the rising edge of the waveform travels; in this experiment, this is clearly superluminal. In contrast, some researchers argue that the true speed at which information is carried by a light pulse is not the group velocity of a smooth pulse, but rather the speed at which a sudden step-like feature in the waveform travels, which so far has not been shown to exceed c. Superluminal effects are especially interesting in the case of light pulses consisting of only a few photons, in which it could be argued that the group velocity is the same as the velocity of the individual photons. The type of superluminal behaviour discussed here is also predicted to apply to single photons8, which might have implications for the transmission of quantum information.
I have a new paradox. Lets say we manage to flood the universe with water. Then we use Cherenkov radiation to communicate. Have we done the undoable?
reminds me of a homework question in my old physics text...I didn't read every post in the thread, but what some people here seem to be missing is the fact that infinite mechanical rigidity doesn't mean that Lorentz (relativistic) contraction cannot occur.
In mechanical compression the molecules come closer together by moving relative to each other. Infinite mechanical rigidity would mean the molecules can't move relative to each other and so the intermolecular distance can't be altered.
In relativistic contraction, the very notion of length changes according to the reference frame. That is, the molecules (and intermolecular distances, and everything else in motion) themselves become shorter for the observer. Also, different observers can have different length measurements for the same thing.
So, while something can be immune to mechanical compression, it can't be immune to relativistic contraction, which just happens (no force involved or anything, it's just a law of the universe).
See Ehrenfest Paradox:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrenfest_paradox
Do you have an article from a physics journal which says that wormholes are less likely than the impossible?I'd believe in superluminal speeds than bending the physical shape of reality, somehow creating a stable transport in between, then skipping right through.
If there was a reality fairy-tale scale of 1-10 (1 being possible, 10 impossible), then superluminal is a solid 10 and wormholes are a solid 15.
Do you have an article from a physics journal which says that wormholes are less likely than the impossible?
That just proves that we haven't found out how yet. It doesn't prove that we'll never find out how, nor does it prove that it's impossible.You mean besides the fact that there are experiments already showing FTL effects and while wormholes are still a jumbled mix of theories and mathematics?
That just proves that we haven't found out how yet. It doesn't prove that we'll never find out how, nor does it prove that it's impossible.
Your exact words were "If there was a reality fairy-tale scale of 1-10 (1 being possible, 10 impossible), then superluminal is a solid 10 and wormholes are a solid 15." This kind of piqued my interest. So. Tell me. Do you have any proof that wormholes are less likely than the impossible?What are you talking about? Put some context to your words. Is the above quote in reference to FTL or wormholes or both? Why is there a burden to prove something is impossible? Watching a little too much Star Trek lately?
I was never disputing that there are things in this world we will eventually know that we currently don't know. I was questioning the validity of a wormhole as a work-around for FTL issues, as brought up in this thread.
But the concept of using a wormhole to travel from point A to point B in a shorter amount of time is not FTL. They're completely separate concepts.My comment about the fairy tale scale you originally quoted was a little sarcastic in meaning that both FTL and wormhole concepts are currently impossible but creating an impossible theoretical concept (aka wormhole) to explain a work around for another impossible concept (FTL) is ludicrous for the topic of this thread.
In the end, who the f*ck cares? The quote you originally posted had the proceeding magical statement "I believe." Something that nobody can dispute other than myself. Why am I writing this response? I don't know, it's a really slow day at work.
I know it is impossible (at least for us) to construct such a device...but in theory an advanced civilization might have the materials and technology to do so. By communication, I mean physical communication. There is no sound, electricity, or light travelling through the pole. It itself is the form of communication. Think about it...If an unbendable pole is shifted side to side along the X-axis, the other end should be moving simultaneously. I grant that the energy required to move it would be immense, but in theory this could provide a basic morse code form of communication between two distant points, no?