Re: SPS/Pulsars

I pulled the idea from the ONE book I read from the Honor Harrington
series by and author named *mumbles something*.

If you really want beacons in your universe, the underlying "fabric"
doesn't have to be gravity... it can be anything, really.



On Mon, 2002-02-25 at 12:00, Randy W. Wolfmeyer wrote:
> 
> On 25 Feb 2002, Flak Magnet wrote:
> 
> > Then there's the concept of gravitic propagation being instantaneous
> > that could be used for FTL transmission:
> >
> > The theory being something along the lines of gravitic fields being
like
> > a fabric, if you tug on one thread, all the other threads react
> > instantly.	If you say that it really works that way in _your_
universe,
> > then setting up a beacon with a medium power would be as "simple" as
a
> > purposely mis-aligned gravitic drive (set to remain stationary)
pulsing
> > with specifically-timed bursts to make it unique.  Very much like
the
> > lights used to navigate lakes by boats and to denote towers to
aircraft.
> >
> > --Flak
> >
> 
> As a grad student in General Relativity, I can say with near certainty
> that gravitational effects propagate at the speed of light.  At least
in
> the universe as we currently know it.  However, if you assume FTL jump
> drives, a misaligned jump drive might generate the same type of signal
> that could propagate FTL.  But even then the concept of instantaneous
> transmission is going to depend on relativistic frame (how fast the
> observer is moving relative to the source), not to mention the
frequency
> of the signal.
> 
> Please note that I do accept that you can setup thing in whatever way
you
> want in your own fictional universe.
>