Hyperdrive technology real?

[ThomasDM]

Will travelling through hyperspace soon become reality? Check out this article from NewScientist, it deals about a new hyperdrive motor that would propel a craft through another dimension at enormous speeds.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/...25331.200.html (full article only for subscribers but you can also find a similar article over here http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=16902006)

[Three PhDs]

I don't buy it for a second. "Another dimension" - erm, all other dimensions are very very small by any existing theory. If they were big enough, we'd see them and be able to move into them. Even so, why would the speed of light be any faster there? Even at that, why would the speed of light being faster have any relevance?

[Gate Master]

Interesting articals although cant get enough info from them to form an opinion either way at the moment, in particular which dimention they intend to use. Most the other dimentions are small unless this is what the unconventional theory they mentioned relates to.
The only other dimention accepted widely is the one which is theorised to contain all membrane universes and is where gravity is theorised to originate from. If the theory holds true, light speed here is mostlikely to be slower not faster due to the gravity being much stronger at the source and there is a practical problem of it crushing any thing entering it much like a black hole would.
Other practical propblems may arise also regarding the acceleration and deceleration forces.
Not to mention if you believe the conspiracy theorists the last time the US government experimented with electromagnatism in such a way they made ship and crew disappear but only the ship came back, but they are only rumours afterall.
Will certainly be looking in to the story tho to try and form an opinion either way and see if the science holds up or not. As it stands at the moment im only very sceptical about their time frame of five years.

[Three PhDs]

Interesting articals although cant get enough info from them to form an opinion either way at the moment, in particular which dimention they intend to use.

The problem is, in its correct usage, dimension refers to that which we describe by up/down/forward/backwards/left/right. There are only 3 macroscopic dimensions of space. I would at least expect a scientific paper to use dimension in the correct manner.

Most the other dimentions are small unless this is what the unconventional theory they mentioned relates to.

Doesn't really matter though, the dimensions in question would still reside within our universe, and in our universe the speed of light is c.

The only other dimention accepted widely is the one which is theorised to contain all membrane universes and is where gravity is theorised to originate from.

The theory as I understand it is that gravity is the only one of the four fundamental forces which can permeate to other branes, and that is why it appears weaker than other forces (eg, its force is bled off our brane whilst others remain on it.)

If the theory holds true, light speed here is mostlikely to be slower not faster due to the gravity being much stronger at the source and there is a practical problem of it crushing any thing entering it much like a black hole would.

I disagree, gravity has no bearing on the speed of light. It is a fundamental constant.

Other practical propblems may arise also regarding the acceleration and deceleration forces.

Well, if it's a typical "warp drive", the ship itself won't actually be travelling at any great speed.

Not to mention if you believe the conspiracy theorists the last time the US government experimented with electromagnatism in such a way they made ship and crew disappear but only the ship came back, but they are only rumours afterall.

Philadelphia Project? Wish there was some decent authoratitive info available on that.

Will certainly be looking in to the story tho to try and form an opinion either way and see if the science holds up or not. As it stands at the moment im only very sceptical about their time frame of five years.

If you ask me, it's gone the way of that guy who said he was about to announce Cold Fusion or whatever, and made new atoms called Hydrinos etc etc. Lots of hoopla, then nothing.

Personally, the more I've learned about Physics, the less and less likely I see it that we'll create anything warp drivey within the next 100 years.

[newtrekker]

But there still remains the possibility of wormholes.

[Kilharae]

Ok... here's what I don't get about worm holes... Great huge masses distort space time. How would creating a worm hole be anything different than a black hole. We all know how dangerous black holes are. So why is anyone considering this a viable option? And what about that whole time travel paradox schpeal. I mean even if it didn't turn out to be a black hole and we got past the whole time paradox dealy... how in the hell would we bend enough space time to get from where we are to where we could only get with that sort of technology... say we wanted to get from here to alpha centuri... that means we'd have to essentially bend the space from here to there... and basically cut a wormhole through it. Now I'm sorry but that seems about a billion times harder than developing an engine that would get us there in 20 years. I'm assuming we're pretty close to the point where we can get to a fifth the speed of light. I mean basically all we need to get to that speed now is an incredibly efficient power source. (I'm guessing... am I wrong?) explinations would be appreciated.

[newtrekker]

I didn't say about artificially creating them, I'm just saying it's possible that wormholes might exist naturally. I thought wormholes are theorised to fold space or something along those lines. I think it would be extremely difficult to create one artificially too.

[Kilharae]

I think the main problem with worm holes... is that for them to be useful or efficient space needs to be folded first... Now maybe it's already folded to where we want it to go (some how) And while I imagine making a worm hole is an incredibly difficult thing... I'd guess folding space sufficiantly so that it's actually useful for us to do so is basically impossible.

[Three PhDs]

Ok... here's what I don't get about worm holes... Great huge masses distort space time. How would creating a worm hole be anything different than a black hole.

A wormhole is a means of avoiding the big crunchy singularity.

We all know how dangerous black holes are. So why is anyone considering this a viable option?

Because Kip Thorne once wrote an equation for a traversable semiclassical wormhole.

And what about that whole time travel paradox schpeal. I mean even if it didn't turn out to be a black hole and we got past the whole time paradox dealy...

You mean the grandfather paradox, changing the past etc? Can't be done. The future must be consistent with its past, this is causality.

how in the hell would we bend enough space time to get from where we are to where we could only get with that sort of technology... say we wanted to get from here to alpha centuri... that means we'd have to essentially bend the space from here to there... and basically cut a wormhole through it. Now I'm sorry but that seems about a billion times harder than developing an engine that would get us there in 20 years. I'm assuming we're pretty close to the point where we can get to a fifth the speed of light. I mean basically all we need to get to that speed now is an incredibly efficient power source. (I'm guessing... am I wrong?) explinations would be appreciated.

If you're guessing, why are you pulling figures out of the air? What good does it do to present guesses as facts?

I didn't say about artificially creating them, I'm just saying it's possible that wormholes might exist naturally. I thought wormholes are theorised to fold space or something along those lines. I think it would be extremely difficult to create one artificially too.

It is likely they do exist naturally, though unlikely that any macroscopic stable wormhole will exist naturally.

I think the main problem with worm holes... is that for them to be useful or efficient space needs to be folded first...

Folded? Really? Not what I heard.

Now maybe it's already folded to where we want it to go (some how) And while I imagine making a worm hole is an incredibly difficult thing... I'd guess folding space sufficiantly so that it's actually useful for us to do so is basically impossible.

A little over 100 years ago, it was impossible for a powered aircraft to fly a distance greater than the length of the economy class section of a 747. 65 years later we had landed men on the moon, and were regularly flying 500 people 12000 kilometres in an aircraft that weighed 400 tons at takeoff. Creating wormholes is more than likely not impossible (there's nothing really in the laws of physics that says we can't), it's just very difficult to imagine without some large advances in engineering.

[newtrekker]

It is likely they do exist naturally, though unlikely that any macroscopic stable wormhole will exist naturally.

Well at least it's something.

A little over 100 years ago, it was impossible for a powered aircraft to fly a distance greater than the length of the economy class section of a 747. 65 years later we had landed men on the moon, and were regularly flying 500 people 12000 kilometres in an aircraft that weighed 400 tons at takeoff. Creating wormholes is more than likely not impossible (there's nothing really in the laws of physics that says we can't), it's just very difficult to imagine without some large advances in engineering.

Yeah, that's true.

[SmallTimePerson]

there is a theory that nasa had some time ago on making artificial wormholes. It needed extremly dense material (like the middle of a star filling the ring that earth makes during orbit) and alot of power.

[mathwizard]

Here's a technical article about the hyperdrive mentioned,
http://www.uibk.ac.at/c/cb/cb26/heim...icsaip2005.pdf

[lethalfang]

Someone actually believes in the Philadelphia Experiment? It doesn't remotely make any sense.
If you believe it, I have some wasteland swamp I'd like to sell you.

[NKD]

Historically speaking, the "impossible" "improbable" and "difficult" usually don't stay that way for very long.

[Kilharae]

nah... A lot of what people thought is impossible is still impossible. I'm not saying we can't do a lot of things... but there's no reason to think that everything is possible. We already know some things are impossible. There are laws of physics. These laws confine our possibilities.