On 22 November 2014 13:48, smplx wrote: > On Fri, 21 Nov 2014, Kerry wrote: > > > But we know that E=3DMC^2. So, as the Mass of your space ship (and fue= l) > > approaches infinity, what happens to your Energy? > > Duh, don't you know anything... > > Your ship jumps into an alternate reality where the laws of physics are > totaly different and everything is in equilibrium until you slow down and > you drop back into your own reality The following is true as far as the equartions go. Really. What it means in real world terms, if anything, is tbd. I wrote a simple "paper" on this decades ago, which could be taken as a science fiction story along the general lines of thiotimoline EXCEPT that mine is really supported by (very) basic maths. _______________ What nobody realises is that there IS (very possibly) a path across the light speed barrier. "Through" by tunneling and NOT over. Relativistic mass increase is given by M =3D M_rest /sqrt(C^2-V^2) This of course returns a divide by 0 at V=3DC and hence infinite mass. However, for V increasing and V>C you get decreasing energy with increasing V, at first, but with a j in the terms ie imaginary quantities, mathematically at least ecause for V>C, (C^2 -V^2) is negative. What imaginary terms mean to real world stuff is tbd. HOWEVER, as you continue to increase V above C energy reaches a new minimum and then starts to climb again. (This is due to the interaction of the terms for tachyonic relativistic mass and the V^2 term when calculating energy ) If your velocity is in the portion between C and the minimum then you ncrease V by removing energy and increase V by decreasing energy. The super-C energy minimum corresponds to a V of about 0.6C in the real (mathematically) world. At the minimum energy there is one velocity in each realm and above that there are two as the energy matches real worls, decfreasing portion >C and increasing portion > c. IF (and this is the iffy bit) you can devise a means by changing velocity by tunneling the 'light speed barrier' then at constant energy you "appear" at above light speed. Hawking has deviced you can do something semi equivalent to this with quantum tinneling for black holes so that an equally insurmountable barrier is simply bypassed. How you make use of the above is left as an exercise for the scientists. When they work out how to do it, I've prenamed the drive using the effect. It's the "Esaki drive". Warning. Above the energy minimum > C, as you throw on the brakes you go faster. To go slower you need to use propulsive energy. If you are happily transiting the universe at say 100C, or 1000C, and wish to stop BUT do not have enough energy to reduce your speed. you keep going forever in tachyonic world. I don't expect to see an Esaki drive anytime soon. Russell Men in white coats [tm] rate this possibly plausible but exceedingly unlikely. --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .