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- Path: sparky!uunet!well!sarfatti
- From: sarfatti@well.sf.ca.us (Jack Sarfatti)
- Subject: Star Trek Physics 3
- Message-ID: <C1EDD4.80t@well.sf.ca.us>
- Sender: news@well.sf.ca.us
- Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link
- Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 06:43:52 GMT
- Lines: 65
-
-
- Part 3
- Review of Part 2 basics:
- >Gamma is defined as (1 - v^2/c^2)^(-1/2). For our train (for
- which v = 0.6 c), gamma is 1.25. Lengths will be contracted and time
- dilated (as seen by the outside observer) by a factor of 1/gamma = 0.8,
- which is what we demonstrated with the difference in measured time (8
- seconds compared to 10 seconds). Gamma is obviously an important number
- in relativity, and it will appear as we discuss other consequences of
- the theory.
-
- >Another consequence of relativity is a relationship between
- mass, energy, and momentum. By considering conservation of momentum and
- energy as viewed from two frames of reference, one can find that the
- following relationship must be true for an unbound particle:
- E^2 = p^2 * c^2 + m^2 * c^4
- Where E is energy, m is mass, and p is relativistic momentum which is
- defined as
- p = gamma * m * v (gamma is defined above)
- By manipulating the above equations, one can find another way to express
- the total energy as
- E = gamma * m * c^2
- Even when an object is at rest (gamma = 1) it still has an energy of
- E = m * c^2
- >Many of you have seen something like this stated in context with the
- theory of relativity
-
- Hinson continues: (Comments by Sarfatti ((Rashi II?)) between *...*)
-
- >It is important to note that the mass in the above equations has
- a special definition which we will now discuss. As a traveler approaches
- the speed of light with respect to an observer, the observer sees the
- mass of the traveler increase. (By mass, we mean the property that
- indicates (1) how much force is needed to create a certain acceleration
- and (2) how much gravitational pull you will feel from that object).
- However, the mass in the above equations is defined as the mass measured
- in the rest frame of the object. That mass is always the same. The
- mass seen by the observer (which I will call the observed mass) is given
- by gamma * m. Thus, we could also write the total energy as
- E = (observed mass) * c^2
- That observed mass approaches infinity as the object approaches the
- speed of light with respect to the observer.
-
- *This same equation is true for the superluminal particle in real time with
- a different gamma = 1/(v^2/c^2 - 1)^1/2 for v/c > 1 and v = v(particle) =
- c^2/v(wave). The equation is also true for a transluminal particle in
- imaginary time with gamma = 1/(v^2/c^2 + 1)^1/2 for 0<=v/c <= infinity.
- Note v/c = 1 is allowed in imaginary time. There is no light cone barrier
- in imaginary time. Hawking mentions this in his book, A Brief History of
- Time. The idea is that any elementary massive particle (quark, lepton, W,Z,
- X mesons) of frame-invariant mass m can exist in three phases, subluminal,
- superluminal and transluminal. Only the subluminal obeys causality in the
- sense of vanishing quantum field commutators across spacelike intervals.
- Only the subluminal obeys the familiar spin-statistics connection in which
- spin 0,1,2 are bosons (coherent superfluid condensates) and spin 1/2,3/2
- are fermions (Pauli exclusion). The field commutators for superluminal and
- transluminal phases form the "exotic" and cosmological "dark matter" that
- support the traversable worm holes for Star Ship "warp drive" and the
- highly efficient fuel for "impulse power" allowing subluminal travel near
- the Einstein barrier relative to the global frame of the "Hubble flow" of
- the expanding universe in which the cosmic blackbody radiation is
- isotropic. Note, that the local speed of the star ship through the worm
- hole is subluminal. The effective global speed is superluminal because the
- worm hole provides an extra-dimensional short cut connecting widely
- separated space-time regions.*
-