5 ms·

> It's a back of the envelope, order-of-magnitude thing. You... need to work on that. There are plenty of stars within 14 light years. https://www.google.ca/s

> It's a back of the envelope, order-of-magnitude thing. You... need to work on that. There are plenty of stars within 14 light years. https://www.google.ca/search?client=ubuntu&hs=HNq&channel=cs&q=%28%2814+light+years%29+%2F+%28100000++years%29%29+%2F+speed+of+light&oq=%28%2814+light+years%29+%2F+%28100000++years%29%29+%2F+speed+of+light&gs_l=serp.3...2254.7658.0.7809.23.23.0.0.0.0.212.2144.12j10j1.23.0...0.0...1c.1.11.serp.A_x0eX9ctDA https://www.google.ca/search?client=ubuntu&hs=HNq&ch... If you took 100,000 years that would be a speed of 0.00014c. That is pretty pessimistic - we have put objects into space that are travelling away from earth faster than that already! (Yada yada accleration :).) At 0.1c you can go 14 lightyears in 140 years. There are stars closer than this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_stars#Map_of_nearby_stars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_stars#Map_of_ne...

acqq 14y ago
> If you took 100,000 years that would be a speed of 0.00014c. That is pretty pessimistic - we have put objects into space that are travelling away from earth faster than that already! Citation needed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1 travels now at 17 km/s which is cca 6e-5 of c, twice slower than your 1.4e-4. However the bigger the object, the inertia is bigger too, so it is harder to speed up the bigger things, especially anything that would sustain life long enough for more generations. Then don't forget, as much as you speed up something, you have to speed it down too and you need the same amount of energy for that.
- jacobparker 14y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_(spacecraft) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_(spacecraft) 70 km/s. I personally wouldn't want to take that specific trip, but regardless :) Inertia is a much smaller problem than subjecting humans to acceleration :) You can't afford to accelerate fast anyway. Thankfully spacecraft speed up and slow down quadratically with respect to acceleration. To get to a speed of 0.00014c if you were accelerating at 9.8m/s^2 ("Earth gravity") you would need to wait... https://www.google.ca/search?client=ubuntu&hs=2dC&channel=cs&q=%280.00014+*+speed+of+light%29+%2F+%289.8m%2Fs%5E2%29&oq=%280.00014+*+speed+of+light%29+%2F+%289.8m%2Fs%5E2%29&gs_l=serp.3...62176.68334.0.68491.22.21.1.0.0.3.122.1601.18j3.21.0...0.0...1c.1.11.serp.zU9YJuGGHp0 https://www.google.ca/search?client=ubuntu&hs=2dC&ch... 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach top speed. (The same to slow down (ignoring relativistic effects.)) This is a drop in the bucket vs. 100,000 years, or a human lifetime :)

acqq 14y ago

> If you took 100,000 years that would be a speed of 0.00014c. That is pretty pessimistic - we have put objects into space that are travelling away from earth faster than that already! Citation needed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1 travels now at 17 km/s which is cca 6e-5 of c, twice slower than your 1.4e-4. However the bigger the object, the inertia is bigger too, so it is harder to speed up the bigger things, especially anything that would sustain life long enough for more generations. Then don't forget, as much as you speed up something, you have to speed it down too and you need the same amount of energy for that.

jacobparker 14y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_(spacecraft) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_(spacecraft) 70 km/s. I personally wouldn't want to take that specific trip, but regardless :) Inertia is a much smaller problem than subjecting humans to acceleration :) You can't afford to accelerate fast anyway. Thankfully spacecraft speed up and slow down quadratically with respect to acceleration. To get to a speed of 0.00014c if you were accelerating at 9.8m/s^2 ("Earth gravity") you would need to wait... https://www.google.ca/search?client=ubuntu&hs=2dC&channel=cs&q=%280.00014+*+speed+of+light%29+%2F+%289.8m%2Fs%5E2%29&oq=%280.00014+*+speed+of+light%29+%2F+%289.8m%2Fs%5E2%29&gs_l=serp.3...62176.68334.0.68491.22.21.1.0.0.3.122.1601.18j3.21.0...0.0...1c.1.11.serp.zU9YJuGGHp0 https://www.google.ca/search?client=ubuntu&hs=2dC&ch... 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach top speed. (The same to slow down (ignoring relativistic effects.)) This is a drop in the bucket vs. 100,000 years, or a human lifetime :)