The Physics of Elite Dangerous
- Thread starter Riker13
- Start date
Regarding the physics, both the hyperdrive and the frame shift drive are based on the following.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive
Here is a very interesting read btw...C:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20110015936.pdf
Personally, I'm more interested in how the sub-light drive works. Here's a post in another thread I made on the subject.
Note that it's very much speculation.
Note that it's very much speculation.
Hmm that's interesting. If they were based on the Alcubierre drive there'd be no need to throttle into them as the Alcubierre drive remains stationary while space warps around it (in fact, it's in perpetual free-fall while in the localised space-time distortion it creates).
While I'm not quite sure what the Frameshift drive equates to, the hyperdrive is reminiscent of the concept of moving into hyper-space i.e. a different dimension, whereby momentum is retained, but the distances between x and y shortened because of the 'short cut' the other dimension offers.
That's the impression I got from system to system jumping. It looks almost like you're opening an artificial worm hole which then allows you to take a shortcut between the two systems.
As for the supercruise. I'm not sure how that works because the seed indicator often indicates speeds of C, with C (I'm assuming) being the speed of light. I've see it go as high as 160C, which I'm guessing is 160x the speed of light. This raises a couple of questions for me, because we seem to be missing the fact that time slows down at such high velocities, and also that an object that has mass, like a spaceship, would never reach light speed due to the fact that the mass of the vessel would increase the faster you went. So you'd need more power to propel it forward, and the mass would increase again. More power, more mass, more power, more mass, ad infinitum... So you're never quite able to reach light speed. There's also other funky things that go on at such high velocities, like being able to see the past and future in front of you, so you can see where you're going and where you've been at the same time.
Since it's the Higgs Boson that gives all other particles mass, as particles pass through the Higgs field they are "given" mass, much as an object passing through treacle will become slower. Is it safe to assume that by 3300AD science has advanced to a state where we can surround a ship with a "anti-Higgs field" which will render it effectively massless and allow it to exceed the speed of light?
It's the only plausible theory as to how the drive systems on these ships work that I can come up with.
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You'll have to be careful not to Reverse the Polarity when you already have Willing suspension of disbelief 
Why does it indicate speeds in C then? C is universally recognised as the unit for light speed as indicated in Einstein's theory of relativity Energy (E) equals Mass (M) times the Speed of Light (C) squared.
It takes eight minutes for light to get from the Sun to the Earth. So if we assume that most of the habitable planets in the current beta are orbiting G-type yellow dwarf stars, like our own Sun (as most of the suns I've encountered in game seem to be of this type at the moment), and we assume that Azeban City orbits a habitable planet, then that planet must be in the "goldilocks zone" of it's parent star and be at a comparable distance to the Earth from the Sun (assuming the physics in game are accurate). Now we can travel that distance in game in under 2 minutes, so there must be some sort of FTL travel going on.
Warping space simply doesn't explain it. System to system travel must obviously use a warp effect, or a worm hole as I mentioned above, as you're jumping 5LY in less than 5 seconds in the Sidewinder, but the supercruise seems less clear. I still think there's some sort of anti-mass field in effect to enable to ships to move faster than light within systems. But until DB explains it I guess we'll never know.
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Its already explained at my post above. ED uses a frameless mode of FTL travel for both its jumpdrives and frame shift drives. Essentially, the ship contracts and expands the space around it, so there is no effective acceleration. The speed designates the rate at which your frame of reference is shifting as you travel.
I'm familiar with the Alcubierre drive, but that doesn't explain why they're using C as a measurement (because you're effectively short cutting light speed and never going there). It would be much better, and raise less doubts about the actual science of it all, if the developers had come up with their own unit of speed (like the creators of Star Trek did with the warp factor). They could have used "shift factor", or something similar. Also If there's no effective acceleration, how come the pilots head moves in relation to the g-forces when you speed up and slow down in supercruise? Probably because it would look boring to the player if it didn't, but it makes no sense for it to do that if they're sticking as rigidly to physics as you claim they are and actually are using an equivalent of the Alcubierre drive.
These are the questions that arise when you attempt to put real science into fictional things like TV programmes, movies and games. It's often much easier to go down the Star Wars and Doctor Who route and not base it on anything real so when people ask you can just say "It works because it does and it's too complicated to explain".
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you mean something like this eh ?! ;D
https://www.flickr.com/photos/123021064@N05/sets/72157644113972600/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M8yht_ofHc
in german: http://grenzwissenschaft-aktuell.blogspot.de/2014/06/vorbild-star-trek-nasa-wissenschaftler.html
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I ran a story on this ship on my blog before I changed focus from science and astronomy to video game design. Though I think the change of focus was a bit of a mistake as I had over 125,000 followers, and the site was listed on the Portal To The Universe website, but the numbers have taken a massive hit. I should have made a separate blog for the games development and kept doing the science writing... Knowing a lot about science, space and physics doesn't stop you from making silly errors in judgment I'm afarid...
Oh well, we learn from our mistakes
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I ran a story on this ship on my blog before I changed focus from science and astronomy to video game design. Though I think the change of focus was a bit of a mistake as I had over 125,000 followers, and the site was listed on the Portall To The Universe website, but the numbers have taken a massive hit. I should have made a separate blog for the games development and kept doing the science writing... Knowing a lot about science, space and physics doesn't stop you from making silly errors in judgment I'm afarid...
Oh well, we learn from our mistakes
hope so, humanity has to.. ;D
Yes I get it! Still doesn't explain why they're using the unit if you're not actually travelling at light speed. They're circumventing light speed, so using the unit makes no sense and scientifically would not be used and would be replaced with it's own unit of measurement. As I have already explained.
From my own point of view, and I do have a very good knowledge of physics and space, I don't think they've got the science of the Alcubierre drive quite right.
At the end of the day though it doesn't really matter as it's only a game. They could say that the drive was powered by the distilled essence of dead rabbits and Red Bull, and that the ship flies on the gossamer wings of non-corporeal butterflies, and it would make no difference to the game...
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