Flare Sci-Fi Forums: Warp Drive and Time

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Posted by Matrix (Member # 376) on :

Hi

Of ocurse everyone here knows that flt travel is impossible in todays standards because of you eed infinite energy to go at the speed of light let alone faster than that. Star Trek just uses the antimatter/matter reactor as a power source. As of right now we don't know the true potential of a Antim./matter reaction.

Besides that, most of use know that if we went close to the speed of light time slows down form those in the ship while outside the ship time will go faster. So for someone who spent 4 years in a ship, 20 years would have passed.

In my little theory, keep in mind this is in a little high school brain. Ok lets say that Ship A goes at 3/4 the speed of light. At the same time the ship goes slightly back in time by a means of a little time travel, but only so that it would appear that you have gone FTL speeds. This is minor time travel where everything around you outside the ship is slowing down but not you. So what took 4 years on your ship, 1 year would have passed on Earth.

Maybe this is what caused a sling shot effect in TOS, where the gravity effects of a ship going at near FTL speed and part time travel made the ship accelerate to the past or future. Makes sense?

Any thoughts, or is this old?

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

Um... What?

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

If you could go backwards in time you would already be traveling faster than light.

Posted by The Red Admiral (Member # 602) on :

I think this is the other way round for how you explained it. The time dilation would mean that perhaps 1 year had passed for you, on the vessel, and say 100 on Earth. So on your return it would appear as if you'd traveled 'forward in time' a century. But this theory only works going forward in time, not backwards.

If cryogenics could be mastered for example, that would be another form of time travel. Freeze yourself for 50 years, get thawed out, and hey presto, you're in the future.

Posted by Matrix (Member # 376) on :

Of course, I also see a flaw in my theory. If you slow everthing outside but keep the time the saem inside the same then it would be just as bad as having time outside beings faster than inside.

The only way I see a solution to this is if we have times outside and inside decreased and increased respectively to macth each other. However there is a problem that we need an infinite amount of energy to reach the speed of light because light is the purest form of energy. In order to be as fast as light we become light itself. I seriously doubt a antimatter and matter reaction is that powerful. It all comes into play that if our current theory is true. But like every great scientist throughout history, they were proven wrong by pure evidence which is what we need.

The only solution that I can think of is a form of wormhole, which is like if we folded paper like the plane of space and poked a hole in that paper and put a pencil through it we had the pencil travel across the paper the fastest way. Concepts like this is like creating massive gravitational power more than a black hole could ever create but yet not creating any effects on the surrounding space. This gravitational power would pull the other end of space to meet our end and then you could travel through it.

For awhile I have been thinking on how Warp Drive really works in the 'real' world. Yes I know its only a show and it doesn't aply to our physics, but thats how someone's imagination grows.

Does anyone have a solution on how the Enterprise prevent any time effects especially at high warp?

Posted by EdipisReks (Member # 510) on :

they are moving in a subspace field, not in normal space, and therefore time dilation doesn't happen.
warp=subspace=no time dilation

--jacob

Posted by Jack_Crusher (Member # 696) on :

From non canon info I have read, when a starship's warp drive is activated, subspace fields are created around the ship, which propel it at FTL speeds, by transfering the ship/object into the subspace domain, which cancels out relativity (E=MC^2), thus canceling out time dialation, although Star Fleet ships do stay in regular sync with Federation time base beacons. Now the Impulse drive is a totally different matter (and for the duration of this post, anything I say will be refering to Star Fleet ships). Impulse drives have subspace accerator coils, that when plasma from the impulse fusion reactors are passed through them, a non-propulsive subspace field is formed, reducing the ship/object's appearant mass, and allowing it to move through normal space easier, and reducing the strain on the impulse drive(s). The subspace field doesn't have sufficient power to transition the ship/object into subspace or propel it into warp. Since the ship/object stays in normal space, relativity and time dialation can still affect ship/objects, and normally, they don't go faster than 25% light speed for normal sub-light cruising, although some ships can go as fast as 80% light speed, but those high speeds aren't used that often. At sublight speeds, it is even more imparative for ships to keep in sync with Federation timebase beacons.