Quizzes & Puzzles0 min ago
Warp Speed
Please don't laugh at me, but up until yesterday i thought warp speed was real, i always watch Star Trek and thought it was a common thing. I was dismayed that it wasn't real..is warp speed faster than light then, and will it be possible to have it in future, is it an actual theory or just a fictional Star Trek thing?
How about trilithuim, is that a real chemical? Someone tell me!
Answers
No best answer has yet been selected by SizzleSquid. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.If you're interested in this kind of thing, pick up a copy of The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene. It's written at a non-technical level, and gives you a good overview of much of modern physics. Very interesting =)
Trilithium and dilithium are, according to a quick check on Google, entirely fictional. Sorry.
http://www.star-fleet.com/ed/warp-chart.html
There is a bit of confusion about photons.
They have no mass, they do however have momentum. This seems to be a contradiction because at basic level we are taught that momenum is "mass times velocity"
However if you hit an graphite crystal with gamma rays you can knock electrons out. You can use this to see the momemtum that the incoming photon must have had.
See here: http://online.cctt.org/physicslab/content/PhyAPB/lessonnotes/dualnature/Compton.asp
There is still (and has been for at theast 30 years) speculation that neutrinos may have a tiny amount of mass - but that's another story!
The above, in turn, proves that photons do indeed have a mass - and that mass can be calculated. That their momentum can be used to displace graphite electrons shows that they have kinetic energy, which can be calculated from the resultant speed of the displaced electron and its mass. We know that the photon was travelling at the speed of light, therefore we only need to substitute the values of speed and energy into E=mc2 to find the mass of the photon while it was in existance.
the laws of physics can be changed... since the days of early science, it was believed light could only travel in a striaght line. not counting reflecting between mirrors and the like. but it has now been proved beyond doubt that light can be distorted. (bent) it was proven during a total solar eclipse. stars that were known to be behind the moon, became visable to scientists. therefore light was bent around the moons atmosphere.