Text 45210, 113 rader
Skriven 2006-12-28 17:14:00 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
  Kommentar till text 45098 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
Ärende: America
===============
Hello Roy!

On Wednesday December 27 2006 09:48, you wrote to me:

 MvdV>>>> - You can not go faster than light.
 MvdV>>>> - You can not go back in time.

 RW>>> I read somewhere that someone has proposed a theory that allows
 RW>>> for going faster than the speed of light.

 MvdV>> Proposing a theory does not make it so.

 RW> E=MCý was proposed and happened to be nearly correct some years later.

No, what was proposed is that the speed of light is the same for any observer
in an intertial frame of reference. E=MC^2 is a *consequence* of that.

Theories do not get proven. They get *falsified*. Or not... The special thory
of relativity that says light speed is the cosmic speed limit has not been
falsified for over a hundred years, despite thousands of attempts. Very good.
Most theories do not kast beyond the first attempt to falsify them. The theory
of the ether as a medium dor thepropgation of light waves was falsified by the
Michaelson and Molrey experiment in 1896(?).

 RW>>> If that can be done, going back in time can also be done.

 MvdV>> Exactly. And that is the problem with going faster than light.
 MvdV>> It *implies* time travel. And vice versa. Time travel opens up
 MvdV>> a can of worms that is to hard for the universe to swallow.

 RW> I think I remember now where I read the theory. It was in the book
 RW> 'The Universe in a Nutshell' by Stepen Hawking. He proposed the theory
 RW> and how it would work. The biggest obstacle was the power required to
 RW> travel at or near the speed of light. He also opened up some ideas of
 RW> what might be considered a 'can of worms' in space/time travel.

Sounds like a description of the Alcubierre drive. Not even ripe for
falsification.

 MvdV>>>> - You can not fit a 4 mm peg into a 3 mm hole.

 RW>>> I can fit a 4.2mm peg into a 4mm hole.

 MvdV>> You'd end up with a hole bigger than 4 mm or pegs smaller than
 MvdV>> 4.2.

 RW> Yes, there would be some stretch or shrinkage, but it isn't impossible
 RW> to put them together.

Not while maintaining the preposition.

 RW> That's what I did in my early career as a tool and die maker. Usually
 RW> it's the pin (peg) that is heat treated to a hardness that won't allow
 RW> shrinkage, while the hole would be stretched to a press fit and then
 RW> the material it's in heat treated. The hole would shrink again for an
 RW> even tighter press fit.

all you have achieved is that you strechted the hole/shrunk the pin to make it
fit.

 MvdV>> Or both. whatever way it turns out, you would not have fitted
 MvdV>> 4,2 mmm pegs into 4 mm holes.

 RW> But I have successfully done so. The hole becoming larger only after
 RW> the pin is pressed into it.

The hole becoming larger *while* the pin is pressed into it.

You can not fit 4 mm pins into 3 mmm holes. But you *can* deny it is impossible
of course.

 RW>>> 3mm would be a challenge, but it could be done with the right
 RW>>> equipment.

 MvdV>> Same problem.

 RW> You've never seen what a 100 ton press can do.

Duh. I have seen what a MBar can do...

 MvdV>>>> - You can not lift a 1 meter platinum cube with human bare
 MvdV>>>> hands only.

 RW>>> Well, you would have to put your back into it and that wouldn't
 RW>>> be enough either.

 MvdV>> Have you any idea what a cubic meter of platinum weighs?

 RW> Yes, slightly less than one cubic yard of platinum.

Redo from start.

 MvdV>>>> - You can not breathe in a vacuum.

 RW>>> I saw a mouse breath under water once.

 MvdV>> What you saw probably was the experiment in which a mouse
 MvdV>> breathed in a 1000 Bar oxygen saturated solution of freon.
 MvdV>> Freon, mot water.

 RW> No, it was water. But you were close.

 MvdV>> Whatever, an oxygen saturated liquid is not a vacuum.

 RW> I know, but it got you off course anyway.

Proving that you could not dispove my original claim.


Cheers, Michiel

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