RE: starship-design: FTL idea

["L. Parker" <lparker@cacaphony.net>]

Kyle,

> mass. They can neither be slowed down, nor sped up. (light slowing down
> has been observed, but is do to retransmission rates in a dense
> environment). Tachyons, FTL particles, travel faster than light since
> they have imaginary mass. What happens when you have negative mass? This
> has only been observed between casimir cavities, and they certainly
> don't exceed the speed of light, yet light speeds up in the cavity.
> Maybe negative mass particles travel faster than light? Or speed up
>light? 

[L. Parker]  You answered your own question, the speed up in a Casimir cavity 
is caused by  the near absence of atoms, or particles of any sort for that matter,
and there is therefore less absorption and reemission of the photons.  The increase 
in speed is only in relation to lights "normal" speed which is minisculely slower
OUTSIDE the cavity in the "dense medium".

Lee