can someone explain the new warp drive theory and how the new calculations now make it possible, also the energy needed and theoretical materials needed.
In: Technology
Warp drive is a theoretical method of propulsion which may be capable of achieving speeds faster than the speed of light by means of manipulating space-time. The idea is to contract the space in front of you while expanding the space behind you, effectively moving your vessel from one point to another while not actually moving at all relative to your immediate surroundings. However, this is, so far as can be determined, something that can only exist as a math equation. One of the key components of such a drive would be what is called ‘exotic matter’, matter which demonstrates abnormal physical properties, specifically, matter with negative mass. This is something we can describe with numbers and use in math equations, but which, so far as we can determine, does not actually exist anywhere in the universe and perhaps cannot exist at all in physical reality. Its a bit like saying “I have two barrels of apples, one which has ten apples in it and one which has negative seven apples in it. So my total number of apples is three apples.” Except that you cannot actually have a barrel filled with a negative number of apples. Since this seems to be impossible, many physicists who like the idea of faster than light travel have been trying to find ways to make it work without the exotic matter, but their solutions to the equations involved have not all been proved. Even if we did find such a solution, that still doesn’t mean it would be at all possible to build such a drive.
When it comes to the ‘energy’ required by such a drive, we are talking about mass-energy, which is what causes the bending of spacetime. Even in the best theoretical models you need a lot of energy to bend space like this (as well as the exotic matter). Some of the solutions to the equations suggest you might need to convert something like the entire mass of Jupiter into energy that you could move around in order to make this method work.
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