LUDICROUS SPEED GO!!!

[ardyandkari]

i was having a lively discussion with my wife and we wanted your opinions...

 

the issue at hand:

 

i am flying in my spaceship at a standard speed.  i decide to drop a marble for no apparent reason at the same time that major tom decides to go to light speed.  what happens?

 

just wondering if anyone will come up with the same answer as either of us.  i will post what we came up with (two VERY differing hypothesis) in a couple of days.  have fun and safe flights!

[.josh]

42

[corbin]

Major tom is flying a different space ship, and you dropped the marble out of your ship?  Are we assuming that the marble would actually go anywhere if you literally dropped it?

[.josh]

Okay for real, did you just like, drop it out of your hand while sitting in your chair, or did you like, open a cargo bay door and release it? What's the ship's year make and model? Is this a trick question? Because I have seen plenty of sci-fi movies where people have to be frozen into suspended animation in order to make this jump, so why would you be out of your pod? I mean, there's protocol for this, right?  Tom would not be just randomly hitting the warp speed button without you knowing... 

 

Unless there was some kind of mutiny or maybe aliens are attacking and you guys are trying to get the fuck out of there, which leads me to ask: are you dropping the marble because you saw an alien and it was one of those knee-jerk reactions one does in a moment of shock, before he scrambles away? 

 

What do you mean by "drop?" Are you in space? Is there gravity or artificial gravity? Dropping something implies a "down" but "down," as we noted from Ender's Game, does not necessarily imply gravity.  So if there is no gravity, "down" could be towards your enemies.  So...were you in fact, throwing the marble at the aliens trying to chase you?  Do you have some kind of info about marbles being fatal to aliens, or can this be further attributed to afformentioned knee-jerk moment? 

 

I bet you know something, don't you. The damn govt. is always hiding shit.  Yeah I know all about that alien you got stashed in area-52.  I bet that alien has a really big mouth and a really tiny throat, doesn't he.  Really big, so you can easily throw something in it, but something small - just large enough to get stuck in the back of his throat, causing him to choke to death.  Man, I thought you'd be using a frickin' laser by now, or something. 

 

So that's what happened: You were chilling with your friend Tom.  Aliens attacked.  Tom made a b-line towards the big red button, while you fended off aliens with your standard government issued marbles. 

[unsider]

Okay for real, did you just like, drop it out of your hand while sitting in your chair, or did you like, open a cargo bay door and release it? What's the ship's year make and model? Is this a trick question? Because I have seen plenty of sci-fi movies where people have to be frozen into suspended animation in order to make this jump, so why would you be out of your pod? I mean, there's protocol for this, right?  Tom would not be just randomly hitting the warp speed button without you knowing... 

 

Unless there was some kind of mutiny or maybe aliens are attacking and you guys are trying to get the fuck out of there, which leads me to ask: are you dropping the marble because you saw an alien and it was one of those knee-jerk reactions one does in a moment of shock, before he scrambles away? 

 

What do you mean by "drop?" Are you in space? Is there gravity or artificial gravity? Dropping something implies a "down" but "down," as we noted from Ender's Game, does not necessarily imply gravity.  So if there is no gravity, "down" could be towards your enemies.  So...were you in fact, throwing the marble at the aliens trying to chase you?  Do you have some kind of info about marbles being fatal to aliens, or can this be further attributed to afformentioned knee-jerk moment? 

 

I bet you know something, don't you. The damn govt. is always hiding shit.  Yeah I know all about that alien you got stashed in area-52.  I bet that alien has a really big mouth and a really tiny throat, doesn't he.  Really big, so you can easily throw something in it, but something small - just large enough to get stuck in the back of his throat, causing him to choke to death.  Man, I thought you'd be using a frickin' laser by now, or something. 

 

So that's what happened: You were chilling with your friend Tom.  Aliens attacked.  Tom made a b-line towards the big red button, while you fended off aliens with your standard government issued marbles. 

 

*head explodes*

[AndyB]

i was having a lively discussion with my wife and we wanted your opinions...

 

My wife and I tend to have rather more pedestrian discussions. Isn't it your turn to take out the garbage, for example.

[corbin]

i was having a lively discussion with my wife and we wanted your opinions...

 

My wife and I tend to have rather more pedestrian discussions. Isn't it your turn to take out the garbage, for example.

 

 

That quote reminded me of Flight of the Choncords.

[unsider]

 

My wife and I tend to have rather more pedestrian discussions. Isn't it your turn to take out the garbage, for example.

 

 

That quote reminded me of Flight of the Choncords.

 

Haha, ya it does, funny show. The opening for another song.

[448191]

Christ. I always think it's SA when I see that avatar.

[unsider]

Christ. I always think it's SA when I see that avatar.

 

Mine?

 

And may I be so blunt as to ask what SA is? Only thing I can think of is SomethingAwful

 

[448191]

http://www.phpfreaks.com/forums/index.php?action=profile;u=10230

[GingerRobot]

42

 

lol. A man after my own heart.

 

Have you seen this?

[ardyandkari]

Okay for real, did you just like, drop it out of your hand while sitting in your chair, or did you like, open a cargo bay door and release it? What's the ship's year make and model? Is this a trick question? Because I have seen plenty of sci-fi movies where people have to be frozen into suspended animation in order to make this jump, so why would you be out of your pod? I mean, there's protocol for this, right?  Tom would not be just randomly hitting the warp speed button without you knowing... 

 

Unless there was some kind of mutiny or maybe aliens are attacking and you guys are trying to get the fuck out of there, which leads me to ask: are you dropping the marble because you saw an alien and it was one of those knee-jerk reactions one does in a moment of shock, before he scrambles away? 

 

What do you mean by "drop?" Are you in space? Is there gravity or artificial gravity? Dropping something implies a "down" but "down," as we noted from Ender's Game, does not necessarily imply gravity.  So if there is no gravity, "down" could be towards your enemies.  So...were you in fact, throwing the marble at the aliens trying to chase you?  Do you have some kind of info about marbles being fatal to aliens, or can this be further attributed to afformentioned knee-jerk moment? 

 

I bet you know something, don't you. The damn govt. is always hiding shit.  Yeah I know all about that alien you got stashed in area-52.  I bet that alien has a really big mouth and a really tiny throat, doesn't he.  Really big, so you can easily throw something in it, but something small - just large enough to get stuck in the back of his throat, causing him to choke to death.  Man, I thought you'd be using a frickin' laser by now, or something. 

 

So that's what happened: You were chilling with your friend Tom.  Aliens attacked.  Tom made a b-line towards the big red button, while you fended off aliens with your standard government issued marbles. 

 

mayhaps the best response to any post that i have ever seen!  i laughed, my wife laughed anyone that i show laughs...HILLARIOUS!!!

 

the idea was that major tom was piloting my ship, the ship has artificial gravity like the starship enterprise, and no aliens.

 

i am in my chair just sitting around with a marble.  i drop it "down" (i know that it is a relative term when dealing with space travel...leave me alone.)

[corbin]

Hrmmm.  Assuming the air is pushed along with the ship, and the air pushes the marble, it falls straight down.  If not, then Tom is screwed.  I'm not exactly well versed in physics though x.x.

[ardyandkari]

i was thinking that it would seem to shoot backwards (the ship would actually be moving forwards at incredible speeds) and do damage...

 

my reasoning:

 

if you sit in a stopped car with a half bottle of water and suddenly accelerate, the water moves to the back as far as gravity allows.

same thing when you drop an object inside the car.  it looks like the object moves backwards, where it actually is just dropping and you are moving forward. 

 

my wife was big into physics and the theoretical sciences and i was/am into the "doing it" science (applied use).  never really did anything with science (no jobs, just interested).  i hate just thinking about something, i want to do it...unfortunately, i cannot talk to major tom, (the circuit's dead, there's something wrong).  i also don't think that we will be achieving light speed any time soon, so it really doesn't matter, it just came up.  weird huh???

[GingerRobot]

i also don't think that we will be achieving light speed any time soon, so it really doesn't matter, it just came up.  weird huh???

 

Are you familiar with Einstein? Asuming he is correct, we won't be achieving light speed ever.

[Daniel0]

If memory serves me then the speed of the expansion of the universe itself is proportional to the distance of your current location so therefore I suppose that if the object is at a large enough distance away from you then you could say that it is moving away from you at a speed faster than the speed of light. However, this is only because the space itself is expanding and not because the object by itself is moving. If I remember correctly then I think it was discovered that the light from far galaxies where shifting more towards red which has a lower frequency(?). This is also some of the theory behind the big bang theory because if space is expanding then if you move backwards along the timeline then all space would logically have to be at less space and in the "start" at one point.

 

You might want to get someone with knowledge about physics than me (wouldn't take much, really :-\) to verify this as it's kind of a long time ago since I had any physics lessons, and even those weren't at particularly high level.

[GingerRobot]

Sure, something's relative velocity could be more than the speed of light; all that would be required is two objects moving away from each other at half the speed of light. But it's impossible for an object's speed - as opposed to velocity - to hit the speed of light as it requires an infinite amount of energy (assuming that object has mass).

 

You're right about the fact that an object travelling away from you has it's light shifted towards the red - it's called doppler shift. And yeah red light has a lower frequency.

[corbin]

Oh, so speed is how fast something is really moving, and velocity is how quickly something is moving compared to something else?  (Basically relative speed)

 

Never knew that before.  I always thought that speed and velocity were basically the same.

[Daniel0]

Oh, so speed is how fast something is really moving, and velocity is how quickly something is moving compared to something else?  (Basically relative speed)

 

Never knew that before.  I always thought that speed and velocity were basically the same.

 

Me too. Especially seeing as Danish (my mother tongue) makes no distinction. Both words are translated to the same Danish word (hastighed).

[neylitalo]

Strictly speaking, speed is distance/time and velocity is speed plus a direction. Relative velocity is an object's velocity with relation to another object, and relative speed is an object's speed with relation to another object.

 

Object A has a velocity of 10 m/s East, and Object B has a velocity of 5 m/s East. With relation to Object A, Object B's velocity is 5 m/s West.

[GingerRobot]

i.e. Speed is a scalar; velocity a vector.

[akitchin]

if you said "very near light speed," the answer is the marble would likely go through the back of your ship, you'd all be sucked out and dilated to a thin paste in an instant (assuming the acceleration is great enough), since the marble would retain the speed of its reference frame. newton's (i can't remember which) law: objects in motion tend to remaining in motion. that is, an object will retain its current velocity until something, like the back of your car, comes along to apply an impulse and change its momentum.

 

if we're going to get all theoretical-like, the answer is, we probably all have a different one. from what i've understood, the spaceship's mass would infinitely dilate along the line of travel. to an outside observer, all you'd see is the last image of where they were (since any further-emanated light will be traveling slower than the source, and thus its relative velocity is in the direction of light-speed travel).

 

the truth is, nobody knows what'll happen if/when something hits light speed. there's been very objectionable support for signals traveling faster than the speed of light, so for all we know, what happens is physicists will go "huh. i guess it wasn't really that special."

 

3x10^8 FTW.

 

PS:  it's nice to see people who know the difference between speed and velocity.

[corbin]

Strictly speaking, speed is distance/time and velocity is speed plus a direction. Relative velocity is an object's velocity with relation to another object, and relative speed is an object's speed with relation to another object.

 

Object A has a velocity of 10 m/s East, and Object B has a velocity of 5 m/s East. With relation to Object A, Object B's velocity is 5 m/s West.

 

 

Oh.

[ardyandkari]

ok, my brain hurts from all of this REAL science stuff...i just make it up and ask the questions here ok???

 

thanks though.  i have learned a lot from this thread, had a few laughs and taken many tylenol for more than a few headaches...

 

i do understand that we will not be achieving light speed ever (at least not using propulsion)...

ooooooooh... did i open up another can of worms???

 

i have heard of a theory (i call it the star trek theory).  this is that the engines of a ship would create a "bubble" around the ship and space would actually move and the ship would stay stationary...i am not sure what it is called, but i saw it on a show where they were talking about the similarities between the old star trek and real life (information stored on shiny circular disks anyone???) and possibilities for the future...

 

if anyone can tell me what that theory was, they get 1000 points.