BOUNCE starship-design: Non-member submission from [Kevin C Houston <hous0042@garnet.tc.umn.edu>]

[Steve VanDevender <stevev@darkwing.uoregon.edu>]

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Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 11:30:11 -0500 (CDT)
From: Kevin C Houston <hous0042@garnet.tc.umn.edu>
To: "'LIT Starship Design Group'" <starship-design@lists.uoregon.edu>
Subject: Re: starship-design: Many Questions
In-Reply-To: <33DC364D.10DC@sunherald.infi.net>
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On Sun, 27 Jul 1997, kyle wrote:

> Kevin 'Tex' Houston wrote:
> > 
> > kyle wrote:
> > >
> > > I come with questions:
> > >
> > > 1. What causes antigravity? Theoretically in the big bang?
> > 
> > If you are refering to what I wrote, i must re-iterate that this was
> > only my musings, and not a supported theory.  using it as a basis for
> > other ideas is not recommended.
> 
> It is a good theory though.

but it is not provable, it is only disprovable (all in all, better than
most wild theories) IT is disporovable by noting that the speed of light
is not constant but a function of the "curvature" and the "limit of
elasticity" (for want of a better term) of the space-time.

The up shot is, as the universe expands (or you manage to make the local
space-time flatter... Cassimir?), the speed of light should increase.
This increase may or may not be detectable with our current tech.

The key value would be the percentage increase in the universe in a given
time period, and whether or not we could detect such an increase in the
speed of light (assuming we weren't blinded to such a possibility).
If you ask why we haven't detected such a drift before, I'd say that it's
because we never looked for it, and if the speed of light was faster than
the accepted value, most scientists would adjust their clocks than
re-write the physical models.

Anyone know how fast the universe is expanding?  as a percentage of total
size?


> > 
> > Of course, aiming anything in the w direction would be terribly
> > difficult.  imagine a 2-D being trying to aim his rocket in the third
> > dimension.  how could he possibly do it?
> 
> Oh, it is possible, but involves some potentially dangerous
> technologies. We can't even make the necessary part/object/thing yet.
> Ever hear of artificial quantum singularities?
> (man-made micro black holes).

Yes, but I fail to see how they could "point" into the w direction.
Anymore than a black hole in flatland could allow a rocket engine to point
outside the surface of the universe. (black holes bend the surface (or
volume) but things within are still confined to it.

> 
> > 
> > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- BEGIN STUPID IDEA-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- DO NOT TRY THIS -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 
> > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- IT WOULD BE VERY DANGEROUS -=-=-=-=-
> > 
> > I suppose if you had a *really* strong spherical container, with a very
> > powerful explosive inside, the force might be great enough to rip a hole
> > into the w direction thereby producing a noticeable temporary increase
> > or decrease in the local gravity.
> > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- END STUPID IDEA -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> 
> Really strong: does this mean stronger than stainless steel?
> Powerful explosive: how powerful? an A-bomb??

Container must be stronger than the space-time.
the explosive must be stronger than the spacetime, and not as strong as
the container.

> Don't worry, I won't try this. Just gathering info.

glad to hear it, the consequences of having a strong, but not strong
enough container would be a catastrophic explosion (with shrapnel)  and
the stronger the container, the more damage.

--
Kevin "Tex" Houston             http://umn.edu/~hous0042/index.html
Webmaster                       http://www.urly-bird.com/index.html
"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and
Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." A. Einstein