Topic: Van Den Broek's alcubierre metric variant warp space configuration  (Read 42282 times)

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

Offline prometheus

  • Hot and Spicy
  • Commander
  • *
  • Posts: 3610
Re: Van Den Broek's alcubierre metric variant warp space configuration
« Reply #240 on: November 10, 2005, 08:16:26 pm »
I disagree. for decades the question was:   is there enough matter in the universe to render it closed? will there be a big crunch? or will the expansion go on for ever and die in ice rahter than fire? or is the mass ballanced with the expansion so at some point it will reach homeostasis and neither expand nor contract. each of these options dictated the universe have a certain shape. from a saddle to a torus to a sphere...Since they thought the universe was closed and would contract to a big crunch then that assosiated shape was the shape that scientist accepted by default if you will.

Current data observed from type Ia supernovae suggests that expansion is accelarating and there will be no big crunch...  Whether that data will stand the test of time remains to be seen...


To make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the Universe!

Offline Stormbringer

  • Global Moderator
  • Lt. Commander
  • *
  • Posts: 1984
  • Gender: Male
Re: Van Den Broek's alcubierre metric variant warp space configuration
« Reply #241 on: November 17, 2005, 05:26:07 pm »
Is Earth In A Vortex Of Space-Time?

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/gravity-05r.html

An artist's concept of twisted space-time around Earth. More.
by Patrick L. Barry for NASA Science News
Huntsville AL (SPX) Nov 17, 2005
We'll soon know the answer: A NASA/Stanford physics experiment called Gravity Probe B (GP-B) recently finished a year of gathering science data in Earth orbit. The results, which will take another year to analyze, should reveal the shape of space-time around Earth--and, possibly, the vortex.
Time and space, according to Einstein's theories of relativity, are woven together, forming a four-dimensional fabric called "space-time." The tremendous mass of Earth dimples this fabric, much like a heavy person sitting in the middle of a trampoline. Gravity, says Einstein, is simply the motion of objects following the curvaceous lines of the dimple.

If Earth were stationary, that would be the end of the story. But Earth is not stationary. Our planet spins, and the spin should twist the dimple, slightly, pulling it around into a 4-dimensional swirl. This is what GP-B went to space to check

The idea behind the experiment is simple:

Put a spinning gyroscope into orbit around the Earth, with the spin axis pointed toward some distant star as a fixed reference point. Free from external forces, the gyroscope's axis should continue pointing at the star--forever. But if space is twisted, the direction of the gyroscope's axis should drift over time. By noting this change in direction relative to the star, the twists of space-time could be measured.

In practice, the experiment is tremendously difficult.

The four gyroscopes in GP-B are the most perfect spheres ever made by humans. These ping pong-sized balls of fused quartz and silicon are 1.5 inches across and never vary from a perfect sphere by more than 40 atomic layers. If the gyroscopes weren't so spherical, their spin axes would wobble even without the effects of relativity.

According to calculations, the twisted space-time around Earth should cause the axes of the gyros to drift merely 0.041 arcseconds over a year. An arcsecond is 1/3600th of a degree. To measure this angle reasonably well, GP-B needed a fantastic precision of 0.0005 arcseconds. It's like measuring the thickness of a sheet of paper held edge-on 100 miles away.

GP-B researchers invented whole new technologies to make this possible. They developed a "drag free" satellite that could brush against the outer layers of Earth's atmosphere without disturbing the gyros. They figured out how to keep Earth's penetrating magnetic field out of the spacecraft. And they concocted a device to measure the spin of a gyro--without touching the gyro.

Pulling off the experiment was an exceptional challenge. A lot of time and money was on the line, but the GP-B scientists appear to have done it.

"There were not any major surprises" in the experiment's performance, says physics professor Francis Everitt, the Principal Investigator for GP-B at Stanford University. Now that data-taking is complete, he says the mood among the GP-B scientists is "a lot of enthusiasm, and a realization also that a lot of grinding hard work is ahead of us."

A careful, thorough analysis of the data is underway. The scientists will do it in three stages, Everitt explains. First, they will look at the data from each day of the year-long experiment, checking for irregularities. Next they'll break the data into roughly month-long chunks, and finally they'll look at the whole year. By doing it this way, the scientists should be able to find any problems that a more simple analysis might miss.

Eventually scientists around the world will scrutinize the data. Says Everitt, "we want our sternest critics to be us."

The stakes are high. If they detect the vortex, precisely as expected, it simply means that Einstein was right, again. But what if they don't? There might be a flaw in Einstein's theory, a tiny discrepancy that heralds a revolution in physics.

First, though, there are a lot of data to analyze. Stay tuned.


Look. a varient space metric where the normal dimensions are twisted up artificially. imagine that!



Offline prometheus

  • Hot and Spicy
  • Commander
  • *
  • Posts: 3610
Re: Van Den Broek's alcubierre metric variant warp space configuration
« Reply #242 on: November 17, 2005, 07:47:15 pm »
I'm gonna put my money on Einstein, but I'll be watching this space with fascination!


To make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the Universe!

Offline Stormbringer

  • Global Moderator
  • Lt. Commander
  • *
  • Posts: 1984
  • Gender: Male
Re: Van Den Broek's alcubierre metric variant warp space configuration
« Reply #243 on: November 17, 2005, 07:52:15 pm »
I'm gonna put my money on Einstein, but I'll be watching this space with fascination!

hopefully we won't have to wait the entire year for further developments. regardlesseinstein's theories can exist simultaneously with other theroies. they are not always mutually exclusive. i look forward to it bcasue it can show that altered space time metrics can exist within his framework.

Offline prometheus

  • Hot and Spicy
  • Commander
  • *
  • Posts: 3610
Re: Van Den Broek's alcubierre metric variant warp space configuration
« Reply #244 on: November 17, 2005, 08:20:12 pm »
I'm gonna put my money on Einstein, but I'll be watching this space with fascination!

hopefully we won't have to wait the entire year for further developments. regardlesseinstein's theories can exist simultaneously with other theroies. they are not always mutually exclusive. i look forward to it bcasue it can show that altered space time metrics can exist within his framework.

Speaking of such, I used to have some great animations of the various stages of falling into a black hole, but that was three of four hard disks ago and I can't recall where they were... I think I'm gonna consult google on that one...


To make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the Universe!

Offline Dracho

  • Global Moderator
  • Rear Admiral
  • *
  • Posts: 18289
  • Gender: Male
Re: Van Den Broek's alcubierre metric variant warp space configuration
« Reply #245 on: November 18, 2005, 09:16:25 am »
Wouldn't Netwon apply as well?  A body in motion tends to travel in a straight line unless acted upon by an outside force?
The worst enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.  - Karl von Clausewitz

Offline prometheus

  • Hot and Spicy
  • Commander
  • *
  • Posts: 3610
Re: Van Den Broek's alcubierre metric variant warp space configuration
« Reply #246 on: November 19, 2005, 09:38:11 am »
Wouldn't Netwon apply as well?  A body in motion tends to travel in a straight line unless acted upon by an outside force?

Einstein's theory of gravity is basically a refinement of Newton's theory to explain the anomolies that creep in at high velocities or in the vicinity of dense massive objects...


To make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the Universe!

Offline CaptJosh

  • Lt.
  • *
  • Posts: 775
  • Gender: Male
Re: Van Den Broek's alcubierre metric variant warp space configuration
« Reply #247 on: November 28, 2005, 10:52:53 am »
Hey, I noticed some mention of p-branes earlier, but no particular mention of the overarching theory behind them, ekpyrotic(sp?) universe theory, something I saw most recently in Stephen Hawking's The Universe in a Nutshell

BTW, it's nice to know I'm not the only cosmology hobbyist out there.
CaptJosh

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world;
those who understand binary and those who don't.