Faster Than Light

POSTED BY: AnthonyT
UPDATED: Monday, August 2, 2004 20:22
VIEWED: 19488
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CHRISTHECYNIC

Wednesday, August 13, 2003 12:15 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AnthonyT:
And I think I remember the term being hundreds of earths, yeah? I'd think that means at least 200 planets colonized. A Jovian can have twenty or so big moons, I reckon. The system would have to be HUGE.

-Anthony

I seem to recall Mal saying something like, "There's more than 70 earths spinning and the meek aint inherited one of them.”

It could be that hundreds of new earths were terraformed, but they weren’t colonized yet. That would still mean a huge system.

On a different note, some people say that the time period says there is FTL because they couldn’t get to a new system in that much time. This isn’t necessarily true, it could be they had sleeper ships and they didn’t count the knocked out time. This might lead to some ships being lost on the way; not a happy moment when you wake up to find out that friends or family on the next ship over have been dead for centuries.

ANTHONYT

Wednesday, August 13, 2003 2:31 PM

Near light speed is just as good as a sleeper ship, if you can accomplish it. Ten years might pass for the wide world, but you could get to the nearest stars in a day or two of ship-time. No need for sleeping units there.

The problem isn't colonizing a new system. The problem is moving between systems and maintaining a government if this is a multi-system show.

If this is a single system show, the problem is explaining how so many worlds of near-earth gravity and heat could possibly exist so close together.

--Anthony

GROUNDED

Wednesday, August 13, 2003 11:11 PM

"the problem is explaining how so many worlds of near-earth gravity and heat could possibly exist so close together."

...and why you never see them, or the star, until you're about to land!

XJAYMANX

Sunday, August 1, 2004 5:59 AM

wait! finally, i think i may have found some good evidence for faster-than-light (FTL) travel in a "galactic" setting (which is my preference). in the episode "Safe", when Book gets shot, if you forward 22 minutes into the show, wash and mal are looking over star maps. and i say "star maps" because if you see wash's maps, they look a lot like a galaxy and there are a hell of a lot of dots for a solar system, even a large one.

could this be proof?

~~~
We gotta go to the crappy town where I'm a hero! ~ Wash

YT

Sunday, August 1, 2004 7:48 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by AnthonyT:

I have heard about particles that transcend c. Conventional wisdom when I was in High School suggested that this was impossible.

That is a misconception. As someone else posted in this thread, it is accelerating through c in normal (the four dimensions we notice) space-time that is impossible. A particle with non-zero mass would have infinite (more correctly: undefined) mass @c.

Keep the Shiny Side Up

Wutzon: String Cheese Incident, "Valley of the Jig", from "On the Road - Summer '03"

YT

Sunday, August 1, 2004 7:58 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by justme:

Another clue to Serenity having inertial-drive is the Episode Out Of Gas, where the engine stops running and Serenity stops moving.

Ya, and that's also the episode in which the Cap'n argues with the pilot re doing something to make the signal go farther.

C'mon folks, can we not just admit that we love a show written by great storytellers with little knowledge of physics as it is understood today? The gaffs bother me, but not as much as thin characters and weak storytelling would.

Keep the Shiny Side Up

Wutzon: Derek Trucks Band w/ Jimmy Herring, "555 Lake", from "Wintertime Blues"

YT

Sunday, August 1, 2004 8:20 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Calhoun:
Can anyone provide the blueprints for serenitys propulsion systems. I'd like to build me one and enter it in the X-Prize contest.

Build quick; the contest ends New Year's Eve. And you must provide the Ansari X Prize Foundation with 60 days notice of your intent to attempt your two qualifying flights within two weeks of each other. Plus, if you plan to launch from the USA, you must get a license for each flight (may also apply to many other countries).

In short, my money's on SpaceShipOne from Scaled Composites, with a small covering bet on WildFire from the Da Vinci Group.

http://web1-xprize.primary.net/index.html

Keep the Shiny Side Up

Wutzon: Little Feat, "Spanish Moon", from "Waiting for Columbus"

YT

Sunday, August 1, 2004 8:46 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by JavidRho:

One clue might be seen in "Serenity", when they pass the Reavers ship. Does anyone else wonder why they pass so damn slowely? It looks like you could get out and walk faster. Maybe they were inside some sort of hyperspace tunnel

Since the angle of relative motion of the two ships is not even consistent in the two views we are given (from inside Serenity and from outside looking @both ships), I wouldn't worry too much about the drive mechanism. An important point is that if both ships were just coincidentally passing each other without altering course, they were travelling @something between walking & car driving speeds, and couldn't even get to a neighboring continent in less than days, let alone another moon.

Why don't we presume that the Reavers detected Serenity, and altered their course & speed for that slow flyby & lookover?

Keep the Shiny Side Up

Wutzon: Calobo, "Billy & Bongo Blues", from "Live @the Crystal Ballroom"

ROBINHOOD

Sunday, August 1, 2004 11:48 AM

I really can't believe I'm reading all of this...is FTL available in the Firefly Universe...what type of propultion systems do they have....blah blah blah. Well....who the &$*@ cares...I don't.
The fact that many of you do makes me suspect you've been watching nothing but StarTrek for decades.This sort of insignificant technobabble really annoys me.
I even saw a conversation about the ins and outs of repairing the holographic pool table and window on that little moon a while back. I just find that incredibly sad. Especially when y think that when the writer himself thought of those 2 features, he did it simply because, well, they'd look pretty cool and fun too. Is that so difficult or rather too simplistic to take in?
Why not just try and watch the show...y know...enjoy it....for what it is...a Shining Sci Fi show with proper characters, exciting story lines, incredible special effects and not a tiresome, badly acted, badly scripted,usually ultra dull, conveyor belted set of spin offs that should died long ago.

Yep..........................that went well!

CALHOUN

Monday, August 2, 2004 12:02 AM

Quote:
robinhood wrote:
Sunday, August 01, 2004 01:48
I really can't believe I'm reading all of this...is FTL available in the Firefly Universe...what type of propultion systems do they have....blah blah blah. Well....who the &$*@ cares...I don't.
The fact that many of you do makes me suspect you've been watching nothing but StarTrek for decades.This sort of insignificant technobabble really annoys me.
I even saw a conversation about the ins and outs of repairing the holographic pool table and window on that little moon a while back. I just find that incredibly sad. Especially when y think that when the writer himself thought of those 2 features, he did it simply because, well, they'd look pretty cool and fun too. Is that so difficult or rather too simplistic to take in?
Why not just try and watch the show...y know...enjoy it....for what it is...a Shining Sci Fi show with proper characters, exciting story lines, incredible special effects and not a tiresome, badly acted, badly scripted,usually ultra dull, conveyor belted set of spin offs that should died long ago.

I understand where ya coming from RobinHood but some people such as myself have watched and enjoyed every aspect of Firefly many, many times. Its fun to over analyse and postulate on what could/would/should have happened. My imagination is boundless and this is my way of keeping Firefly alive....(then again maybe its all in my head)

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