Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Space sails?

[10ebbor10]

What's the difference between the imaginary FTL tachyons and the real tachyons? Being named the same thing is kind of confusing.

The actual phenomenon does not travel faster than light.

[smjjames]

What's the difference between the imaginary FTL tachyons and the real tachyons? Being named the same thing is kind of confusing.

The actual phenomenon does not travel faster than light.

How do you tell if someone is talking about the fake one or the real one when they mention tachyons?

[Urist Tilaturist]

Why are writers of science bullshit fiction so fond of things going faster than light? It's not possible, we know it isn't, and there are actually suggested ways (Alcubierre drive, even wormholes) of getting around this barrier which are far more interesting than just making up nonsense.

To check which kind of tachyons people are talking about, just ask them to put "bullshit" in front of the fake ones. Problem solved. You can't tell otherwise, and it all gets very confusing.

[smjjames]

Why do the real ones have the same name as the fake ones?

[10ebbor10]

The real ones were originally thought to go faster than light, but that turned out not to be.

Science fiction had already picked them up at that point.

[Urist Tilaturist]

Hence the planned disambiguation between real tachyons and bullshit tachyons, BTs for those "science" fiction writers who like acronyms.

[smjjames]

What are the real tachyons then? Are they something like neutrinos or?

[10ebbor10]

A real tachyon is a field with a negative squared mass. Ie, imaginary mass. IIRC, the higgs field is one.

[i2amroy]

Just to carry over from the other thread, but my original explanations were based on the assumption that (bullshit) tachyons could exist and have mass (which, at the time of the creation of the Yamato cannon explanation, were still brand new ideas up for debate in the world of physics). I'd definitely agree that any sort of engine that was based on those concepts that I listed (which I think actually didn't get wiped from the other thread, since I hid them in spoilers in an otherwise valid post) would be totally invalid according to modern physics.

[Graknorke]

ffs UUU, not everyone wants to read about fantasy elves or edgy as fuck spree killers in their fiction.

[i2amroy]

Also, they could be EASILY weaponised. Make some highly heat-resistant wormhole generator, or have something which can project a wormhole. For the first, stick it near to a star as possible and open it upon the enemy, the latter, project one end of the wormhole INSIDE the star (or a neutron star, or black hole or whatever) then project the lined one upon an enemy.

Of course one of the major points of fighting is usually over something, most commonly resources. While a black hole based wormhole weapon would certainly be effective, it has the side effect of rendering whatever you use it on uninhabitable and unusable, permanently. Similarly a star based strategical wormhole weapon would certainly be effective at glassing planets, but unless you are okay with waiting for your planet to cool down from a hunk of molten lava (or have some way to shut down/remove the wormhole remotely) you aren't going to be getting anything from that planet for the next few billion years.

[10ebbor10]

The other point is that the energy required to make a wormhole is rather significant, and both it and the Alcubierre drive rely on exotic matter, which hasn't been found yet. (Though theoretically, you could perhaps use some interpretation of quantum mechanics to make it work).

On that matter, An Alcubierre drive might have problems with weaponization as well. The interstellar vaccuum isn't empty, so the the ship would pick up particles and create a bow wave of highly energetic blueshifted particles.

[miauw62]

Why are writers of science bullshit fiction so fond of things going faster than light? It's not possible, we know it isn't, and there are actually suggested ways (Alcubierre drive, even wormholes) of getting around this barrier which are far more interesting than just making up nonsense.

To check which kind of tachyons people are talking about, just ask them to put "bullshit" in front of the fake ones. Problem solved. You can't tell otherwise, and it all gets very confusing.

Because it makes for good worldbuilding???
You seem to be criticising writers of a genre with fiction in its name for writing fiction.

[Urist Tilaturist]

It makes good universe building if they just call them midichlorians or something and admit that they are magic and fictional particles which do not and cannot really exist. Trying to explain the impossible in terms of science cannot work.

How did people think that tachyons with real mass going faster than light were possible in the 1970s, when relativity specifically forbids it? Was the theory thought to be flawed in some way?

When did I ever mention edgy as fuck spree killers? That was an odd leap of logic.