![]() This speed limit only applies to objects travelling within space, not the movement of space itself. This is where the loophole is in Einstein’s speed limit, that nothing can move faster than the speed of light. You are not moving on the surfboard, but the surfboard is moving because it is being pushed by the wave. This would be like riding a wave on a surfboard. If you can compress space in front of the bubble, and expand space behind the bubble, then you can make the bubble of space along with the space ship, move. Take a space ship and put a bubble of space around it. And this is how Alcubierre’s warp drive would work: It was more of a thought experiment.īut his equations are mathematically consistent solutions to Einstein’s equations. Einstein showed that Gravity is a geometric warping of space time.īy manipulating this geometry to look the way a warp field would look for a space ship, Alcubierre made the equations find an answer to the idea of a warp drive, regardless of whether it was feasible or whether other laws of physics would allow it. What you have to understand is that General Relativity at its core is about the geometry of space-time. This was a purely geometric manipulation. How did he figure this out? He did this by manipulating Einstein’s equations of general relativity. In 1994, Mexican physicist, and Star Trek fan, Miguel Alcubierre published a paper on “The warp drive” while still a phD student, and became instantly famous. The unorthodox, crazy physics of the warp drive is coming up right now…! How would such a warp engine work? And is it really plausible? ![]() Turns out there are a lot of scientists who have been inspired by Stark Trek.Īnd I think you are going to be shocked that although the warp drive is highly theoretical, it is based on some real physics. But I was shocked at the volume of real science that has been done on this subject. If we had warp drive like The Enterprise, we could make it a day trip – there and back in only 9 hours.īut isn’t warp drive all a bunch of science fiction fantasy? Isn’t faster than light travel forbidden by Einstein’s special theory of relativity? Well, it turns out there is a loop hole.Īnd to be honest, before I started researching this subject, I thought this video was going to be all tongue in cheek. But at this rate, it would take 20,000 years to reach the nearest alien planet Proxima Centauri. This is superfast by earthly standards, 46 miles or 74 kilometers per second. And if you think that’s fast, the Mellenium Falcon from Star Wars can go 9,000,000 times the speed of light.īy comparison, the fastest manmade object, the Juno probe around Jupiter goes a whopping 0.0002 times the speed of light. This makes for a lot less boring science fiction.Īt maximum warp, the Enterprise from Star Trek the Next generation can go 9000 times the speed of light. Space ships with warp drive can travel to just about any alien planet in the galaxy, as easily as we travel by plane to anywhere on earth, in hours.
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