4 ms·

Warp speed is only 1/10th the speed of light. As far as some news about faster than light travel, refer to: http://xkcd.com/955/ http://xkcd.com/955/

ChuckMcM 14y ago
Well if you read the paper the effective speed is 10c, not .1c. They postulate 'boosting' the effective speed by contorting space-time around the craft, see this quote in the paper: "assume the spacecraft heads out towards Alpha Centauri and has a conventional propulsion system capable of reaching 0.1c. The spacecraft initiates a boost field with a value of 100 which acts on the initial velocity resulting in an apparent speed of 10c. The spacecraft will make it to Alpha Centauri in 0.43 years as measured by an earth observer and an observer in the flat space-time volume encapsulated by the warp bubble. "
- rickmode 14y ago
  So if I understand right, the warping does not affect the "internal" speed of the spaceship in relation of the universe outside of the warp bubble. Maybe someone much better with maths and physics can answer this: will the 0.1c speed have a noticable relativistic age-slowing effect for the travelers compared to their Earth-bound friends?
  - smallblacksun 14y ago
    The time dilation effects don't become large enough to have significant affects on aging until speeds significantly higher than .1C. For example, to age at 1/2 normal rate, you would need to be going ~0.86C. This site has a calculator to play with: http://www.1728.org/reltivty.htm?b0=0.1 http://www.1728.org/reltivty.htm?b0=0.1
  - ChuckMcM 14y ago
    1.005 seconds vs the observer at rest [1] So 157 days on the ship (.43 years) would be 158 days back at home. [1] http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=time+dialation+at+.1c http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=time+dialation+at+.1c
rewind 14y ago
The article says 10x, not 1/10x.
heyrhett 14y ago
Looks like I was wrong about the definition of warp speed. Oh well, sorry, I can't delete it now.

ChuckMcM 14y ago

Well if you read the paper the effective speed is 10c, not .1c. They postulate 'boosting' the effective speed by contorting space-time around the craft, see this quote in the paper: "assume the spacecraft heads out towards Alpha Centauri and has a conventional propulsion system capable of reaching 0.1c. The spacecraft initiates a boost field with a value of 100 which acts on the initial velocity resulting in an apparent speed of 10c. The spacecraft will make it to Alpha Centauri in 0.43 years as measured by an earth observer and an observer in the flat space-time volume encapsulated by the warp bubble. "

rickmode 14y ago
So if I understand right, the warping does not affect the "internal" speed of the spaceship in relation of the universe outside of the warp bubble. Maybe someone much better with maths and physics can answer this: will the 0.1c speed have a noticable relativistic age-slowing effect for the travelers compared to their Earth-bound friends?
- smallblacksun 14y ago
  The time dilation effects don't become large enough to have significant affects on aging until speeds significantly higher than .1C. For example, to age at 1/2 normal rate, you would need to be going ~0.86C. This site has a calculator to play with: http://www.1728.org/reltivty.htm?b0=0.1 http://www.1728.org/reltivty.htm?b0=0.1
- ChuckMcM 14y ago
  1.005 seconds vs the observer at rest [1] So 157 days on the ship (.43 years) would be 158 days back at home. [1] http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=time+dialation+at+.1c http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=time+dialation+at+.1c

rewind 14y ago

The article says 10x, not 1/10x.

heyrhett 14y ago

Looks like I was wrong about the definition of warp speed. Oh well, sorry, I can't delete it now.