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Originally posted by 1ViciousGSX= Sep 8 2004@ 09:16 PM
Here are my thoughts on it. It's hard to think about reaching or exceeding the speed of light because we think about it in "Earthly" terms. Wind resistance and friction are our biggest enemies here on Earth when it comes to speed. But in space there is no resistance and no friction. This is why Plasma engines work in space. Very little initial thrust, but it keeps accelerating as long as it's turned on due to no friction in space to slow it down. Ever heard of "solar sails". These are big sails that are propelled by light photons hitting them it in space. They will reach the speed of light over a period of time. Now if you could design something that would act like 2 magnets with the same poles pushing each other apart, but acting on light photons instead of magnetic energy, then you could exceed the speed of light in space. Remember light photons have weight and mass. That's why light cannot escape a "black hole". The gravity is so strong that light cannot break away from it's grip.
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First of all, photons do not have mass, they do have momentum though.None of the theories of solar sails state they can be propelled to the speed of light.You see light and magnetism(and anything else the is radiated equally) adhere to the inverse square laws, which state strength is inversly proportional the the square of the distance.Which means at twice the distance, the force is 4 times as weak.So things powered by solar sails will lose acceleration at an exponential rate as they get farther from the source radiating the photons.BTW even without friction, it can potentially take ion/plasma drive hundreds of years to even reach 50% the speed of light.They also suffer from the mass increase as well, which means they will eventually come to a constant speed(and not accelerate further)because they do not have enough energy to overcome the mass increase.
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I don't belive in the theories that support "bending" or "folding" space into a shorter distance. Imaging trying to move through a big room. Those theories suggest that you could fold the room in half and shorten the distance required to get from one side to the other. But you are talking about moving whole galaxies and solar systems closer to where we are to decrease the distance. I don't believe this is possible. To do it you would have to bring the other objects, solar systems and galaxies closer to us. Can't be done, especially when the universe is constantly expanding. You can't think "two dimensional" as would be required to be able to fold space. Space is "three dimensional".
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Thats like saying you don't believe in a curved earth or our solar system orbiting the sun.Bending of space is readily observed and has probably been proven the most out of all physics theories.They have brought atomic clocks on flights which showed time dilation.Time dilation is a consequence of bent space-time.Pictures in the link you posted show gravitational lenses, which are a consequence of bent space-time.Gravity in the black holes you talked about is a consequence of bent space-time.