Re: Sensor Range Question [Evasion]

-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Watt <kwatt@astro.umd.edu>
To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU <gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 29 April 1999 14:27
Subject: Re: Sensor Range Question [Evasion]

>
>On Wed, 28 Apr 1999, djwj wrote:
>
>> Real Theoretical physics here, you have been warned:
>
>You mean "real" from the point of science fiction, not fact, right?
>Speaking as a theoretical physicist (and my research is in general
>relativity), I'd have to disagree that any of the FTL systems proposed
>inyour message are real in the sense of "real in our world".  But each
>fictional universe defines its own physical laws, so what's "real" in
one
>universe may not be "real" in another (or ours).
>

Ah ha!	 A Physicist.	This is also my Doctoral subject, although some
while ago now.	 I have been watching this thread and thinking -
although
not saying - that in fact fast-than-light travel - at least by Special
Relativity is not impossible.  The equations come up with some weird
answers
(involving the square root of -1 if I remember rightly) and what those
answers might mean is unknown but the problem is, I believe, that
travelling
AT the speed of light is impossible and thus (or even hence) getting to
FTL
speeds from this sub-light state is impossible.   If however you already
were travelling at those speeds then the equations do produce answers,
just - from memory - imaginary numbers, right?

A#