General / Off-Topic Did we just miss this HUGE news about FTL travel???

[Kancro Vantas]

Ok... I am not gonna say that I am freaking out....but I am freaking out!!!

Seems that NASA accidentally has created a warp field, according to Alcubierre's Theory....Thing is that it was accidental, but they still can recreate it!!!

http://sputniknews.com/us/20150425/1021360503.html

Not being very active in the forums in the past couple of days, so apologies if this was already posted but..OMG OMG OMG!!

 

[Greyhawk]

Um....yeah.

Somehow I doubt this is either true or interpreted correctly. You cant go faster than light. There's no way around that. You just cant - end of story.

 

[Jim Panse]

Holy <Hand grenade of Antioch>... So in twenty years we are of to Vulcan ?

 

[puca]

Stop freaking out, it's either experimental error, or quantum mechanics. You can't go faster than c.

 

[Jim Panse]

Um....yeah.

Somehow I doubt this is either true or interpreted correctly. You cant go faster than light. There's no way around that. You just cant - end of story.

At our actual point of understanding this may be truth. But history has shown oft that doctrins shift after new discoverys.

 

[katheb]

Um....yeah.

Somehow I doubt this is either true or interpreted correctly. You cant go faster than light. There's no way around that. You just cant - end of story.

The Earth is Flat there is no way around that, you'll fall off at the edge - end of story.

Does that ring a bell?

 

[pippo]

Um....yeah.

Somehow I doubt this is either true or interpreted correctly. You cant go faster than light. There's no way around that. You just cant - end of story.

And the Earth was flat… end of story.

EDIT: ninja'd

 

[Jorlin]

Um....yeah.

Somehow I doubt this is either true or interpreted correctly. You cant go faster than light. There's no way around that. You just cant - end of story.

strange things happening on a subatomar level
even speed is irrelevant, since time isn't longer a factor.

there ARE things happening far beyond the speed of light.

 

[Tinman]

I've read it.

Going to take it with a HUGE pinch of salt until it has been heavily verified by more tests.

Remember how scientists at CERN though they had measured faster than light neutrinos due to a loose cable!

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/02/22/einstein-was-right-all-along-faster-than-light-neutrino-was-product-of-error/

Um....yeah.

Somehow I doubt this is either true or interpreted correctly. You cant go faster than light. There's no way around that. You just cant - end of story.

By using a warp field you are not going faster than light...that's the point of the (potential) loophole. However, I still stand by what I wrote above.

 

[steveme]

NASA funded a research project into this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Propulsion_Physics_Program

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/bpp/index.html

It was terminated in 2002

 

[Lobstris]

Two words. "Cold" and "Fusion". Or in the words of the great Public Enemy, "Don't believe the hype!".

 

[Stigbob]

Um....yeah.

Somehow I doubt this is either true or interpreted correctly. You cant go faster than light. There's no way around that. You just cant - end of story.

They said that about the sound barrier, heavier than air flight and the steam engine (the accepted scientific view was that 30mph would suffocate passengers under the weight of air pressure).

However given this news is extremely experimental and not yet peer reviewed or repeated maybe we should wait for a bit more r&d. If its true I promise I'll freak out but right now its just dubious (but exciting) news.

 

[OillyRag]

Um....yeah.

Somehow I doubt this is either true or interpreted correctly. You cant go faster than light. There's no way around that. You just cant - end of story.

Stop freaking out, it's either experimental error, or quantum mechanics. You can't go faster than c.

your right it's impossible, just like the other day a bloke told me I could go round the world whereas I know for a fact the earth is flat.

 

[Deleted member 37733]

We have seen this before very recently when CERN thought they had particles traveling faster than the speed of light. Turns out it was instrumental error.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light_neutrino_anomaly

 

[Meric]

So far they are measuring mN out of em-drives (hence why most suspect statistical error). You'll be waiting a fair while for your Sidewinder to turn up ;-)

 

[EdzUp]

Um....yeah.

Somehow I doubt this is either true or interpreted correctly. You cant go faster than light. There's no way around that. You just cant - end of story.

seeing as light speed is relative its entirely possible to go faster than light speed, science has already looked at changing the speed of light in various experiments and also noticed the change in relation to black holes.

 

[Tinman]

Two words. "Cold" and "Fusion". Or in the words of the great Public Enemy, "Don't believe the hype!".

Still around and kicking...

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-01/30/cold-fusion-energy-advances-2015

Not letting go of this salt though!

 

[Malgiliath]

Um....yeah.

Somehow I doubt this is either true or interpreted correctly. You cant go faster than light. There's no way around that. You just cant - end of story.

At present and within the current laws of physics, true.
However, if you had the opportunity to ask Neanderthal man if we would ever fly or put men and women into space, he or she would probably say no.

Don't dismiss the probability of FTL drives, it will probably happen but no in our lifetime.

 

[Midnight_Sun323]

I very much want it to be so, but I wouldn't get too excited. Even if they could replicate it, getting light to travel faster than c is a lot different than getting mass to travel faster than c.

 

[Goilveig]

The Earth is Flat there is no way around that, you'll fall off at the edge - end of story.

Does that ring a bell?

Even in antiquity, western mathematicians and philosophers proved that wrong. Eratosthenes had measured Earth's circumference to within about 10% as of ~200 BC. The idea that a belief in a flat earth persisted into medieval or renaissance life in Europe is a myth, although other cultures may have still held such a belief.

That said, there are indeed plenty of former scientific theories that are no longer held - the idea of the luminiferous ether, for example. Mostly, though, our understanding of the universe is through various models, none of which are universal. For example, most of the time in our daily lives, Newtonian mechanics is a perfectly good model. As particles reach high velocities, Newtonian mechanics breaks down, and relativity is a better model. On the smallest scale, neither Newtonian nor relativistic models are good, but quantum mechanical models prevail. Rather than a wholescale abandonment of relativity, if we did find FTL travel is possible, it would likely by that there are other gaps where relativistic models fail, and another model of the universe is needed.