Name: Jonathan P.
ProgramYear: 2005
Submit Date: Jun 14, 2005
Review Date: Jun 16, 2005

Jonathan How practical is our travel today? We have cars, plane, rockets, and many other forms of transportation. There is always a need for something faster. Our fastest ships can reach an astonishing mach 11, which is just a fraction of the speed of light. The fastest space ship can reach Mars in six months. There has to be a better way. A trip at one quarter the speed of light to Mars might be ok, but what if we look past Mars? Just like we looked at the moon a couple of decades ago, we look at Mars now, and after Mars is conquered, what's next? We might decide to explore Pluto or even another star. It is at this point that our current methods of travel become unpractical. Forms of energy along the electromagnetic spectrum, like light, travel at 186,000 miles per second. That will make light go around Earth more than one time every second, but what happens when we talk about even longer distances. Light waves on Earth seem instantaneous, but when distances expand they are not. Even at the speed of light, a ship would take over a decade to reach the nearest star. The desire to pack up a group of people for many years on a space shuttle is small at the present time. Is light speed travel possible, is there a faster way, and why should we do it in the first place? When it comes to light, Albert Einstein is the expert. As defined by his theory of relativity, electromagnetic waves and neutrinos are the only objects that can travel at 186,000 miles per second. Nothing can go faster. The theory states that objects with no mass are the only things that can travel at the speed of light. There are a few things that should be understood about Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. The theory states that light, mass, time, and length are all connected. As the speed of light is approached the mass of an object increases and the length decreases. Time also comes to a stop at the speed of light, which is a very fortunate thing. If it were possible to get a space ship to the speed of light, time would stop for the people on board. They would leave when they arrive. This is confusing, but it is the best way to explain. Light has no sense of time. Experiments have proved that time actually changes with speed. An experiment done by the California Institute of Technology, was carried out in which atomic clocks were placed in a lab and more clocks were placed on planes and flown around the world for a period of time. The result of the experiment was that the clocks on the ground measured more clicks than those in the planes proving that time does slow down with speed. Light is the barrier of infinity. Mass cannot reach the speed of light. Experiment done in particle accelerators have shown that electrons gain mass with speed. After being accelerated to .99999998 times the speed of light, the mass of a single electron increases to infinite proportions. If they make a faster accelerator, they might get closer, but the energy needed would increase and the speed of light would never be reached. The effect is very much like what scientist experience when trying to reach absolute zero. The colder they make an object, the harder it is to make it go lower. Eventually, the energy required to make mass reach the speed of light would be infinite. So the special theory of relativity has thrown out the idea of making a space ship travel at the speed of light, but while it does this, it also opens a loop hole. Object without mass can obtain the speed of light. In reverse of the General Theory of Relativity, mass could be converted back to energy using the equation, E=mc^2. The mass of a space ship could be turned into energy and then sent at the speed of light. This type of travel is many years ahead of our time, but it could be possible. Traveling at the speed of light would not be strenuous on the crew since they would leave when they arrive, but when they got back to Earth, the rest of time would have advanced. The crew would still be the same age as when they left, but the people on Earth would be years older depending on how long the trip was. So this leaves the question. Is light travel fast enough? Light acts as a barrier. Nothing can break the barrier. Things under the speed of light cannot approach it, and things faster than the speed of light cannot slow down to the speed of light. These special particles are called tachyons. At the present time, they are still theoretical particles. Some day scientist might find a way to break the light barrier and go faster than the speed of light and into the tachyon realm, but that seems improbable since it would void much of Einstein's work. The remaining options that are probable for speeding up travel deal with complicated physics and the fabric of the universe. Worm holes and the space-time continuum. Everything in space is connected in some way. The four forces of nature are connected. The linking of the four forces or Einstein's General and Special theories of Relativity is known as the "Theory of Everything." Many theories have been proposed to connect the forces including Grand Unification and the Superstring Theory. The Superstring Theory opens up possibilities for a quicker form of travel. The Superstring Theory states that all matter is made up of small strings of energy that spin, rotate, and twist. Their energy is the mass that fabricates the most basic particles that form eightfolds and the basic building particles of matter. Neutrons, protons, fermions, leptons, quarks, and thousands of other particles build on each other to form what are know as atoms. The strings are the underlying fabric of the universe though. Their energy levels vary to create holes in the fabric of space. The book Timeline by Michael Crichton does a good job of explaining how a system of travel through the fabric of time would work. Instead of time travel though, travel over great distances would be possible. On the simplest level, the fabric of space-time looks like the readings coming out of an oscilloscope in 3D. There are hills and troughs everywhere. In between them, there are energy gaps, and these energy gaps connect the entire universe to ensure that the laws of quantum mechanics are the same everywhere. The holes are basically worm holes. Worm holes do not allow for travel faster than the speed of light. Instead, they allow a shortcut through space. Imagine a sheet of paper on a table with a ant on one end. The ant could walk to the other side of the sheet in about 30 seconds and travel a distance of eleven inches. Now take the paper and bend it like a horse shoe with one end just a short distance from the other with a path connecting the ends. This path is a worm hole. Instead of traveling eleven inches, the ant could travel just two or three and arrive at the same spot. Space-time is bent in a similar way to the sheet of paper. A worm hole is the connecting path between two locations. No one knows if they really exist, but it is proposed that do exist on energies basic level and in the form of black holes. Do black holes have another end somewhere in the universe? It is not known, but it is possible. Black holes bend space time back around on itself. If the Superstring theory is correct, traveling in the basic structure of the universe would be possible, but we are still a long way from that. The rate of travel is one of the biggest factors affecting exploration. A 30 year trip to the nearest star would be almost impossible. The crew would leave as kids and return as grandpa's. There is a need for information travel at speeds faster than that of light. Messages to Mars can have a delay of over a half hour. Before exploration can go much farther than it has today, a system of travel will be developed in which humans in the form of matter or maybe energy are sent faster than light. Scientist may conclude that Superstrings do weave the fabric of space dispersing the laws of the universe throughout. If this is so, worm holes could exist and travel would become a trick of finding shortcuts. Whatever the outcome, society has discovered a need, and as in every case of innovation, society and science will find a solution. It may be me or it may be you, but one day we may arrive at the other side of the galaxy at the same time we left. When this occurs science will take on a new challenge and the world will be a better place. http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/t-59769_Electron_with_infinite_mass.html Superstrings and the Search for The Theory of Everything F. David Peat The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Einstein Gary F. Moring