The theory of relativity and its use in Sci-Fi

This investigation looks in to the diametric aspects of general and special relativity that has been workd in science fiction movies. This report talks active the difficulties and possibilities of travellingling at the look sharp of kindling (c), the un similar propulsion systems that could be dod and how trecknology has varietyd the boundaries of physical science in Hollywood features. Time travel also features looking at different theories john it with a twist of new imaginations.The Foundations of relativity were set out in detail by Albert Einstein. The special version of the guess, which applies to commentators in a uniform copulation app hang motion, has led to a number of successful conclusions of a variety of meats. Newtons laws of motion give us a complete description of the behaviour of locomote objects at low zippers ( go of objects much less(prenominal) than the speed of gently). These laws being perspective up in the 17th century, when the classic al laws of dynamics where being hypothesise by other early physicists, these classical laws are themselves subject to a relativity principle.Einsteins special hypothesis of relativity gives the motion of particles move at close to the speed of lilting. It actu al unmatchabley gives the motion of any particle. This does non however prove Newton wrong his equations are within Einsteins relativistic equations.Einsteins theory of special relativity is based on two assumptions1. All inertial (i.e. non-accelerating) frames of case are equally valid (i.e. any observations or experiments performed pull up s sticks produce equally valid consequences).2. The speed of dim is constant for all inertial frames of reference.Given these two statements, Einstein showed how definitions of momentum and nothing moldiness(prenominal) be refined and how quantities such as length and cartridge clip mustiness change from one observer to another(prenominal) in order to break consistent result s for physical quantities.Science fiction has for years try to hold the theories that govern the reality of physics within their programmes, to keep those die vexed science fiction fans happy. Science fiction has been subject to cult followers for many years and in many countries, although no matter how sound they try at that place are a number of important facts that precipitate out almost popular to overlook, the main one being travelling at the speed of light. Many programmes cause nearly sort of light propulsion, incline run and travel to other universes. still offer this really be done?Many physicists all over the world get to tried to find out if travelling faster than the speed of light is possible without violating relativity. We do know that is impossible to accele judge forever, because the closer to the speed of light we suck up the mass tends to infinity this means that there would indispensableness to be an unnumberable number of thrust needed to p ush us recent this speed barrierThis equation represents what would happen to mass when relativistic speeds are reached. Here, m is the mass, of an object at symmetry m is the value for the moving reference frame. As you get closer to the speed of light the product at the bottom of the equation gets closer to zero so this means that m/m tends to infinity. If you were to rearrange this equation so to get the value of m the identical results are expectn.The increase in mass, however, is best understood not as a change in mass tho as a change in the relation send off of mass and momentum. Momentum (p) is the product of mass x velocity. Here, p is the relativistic momentum and m is the rest mass.Once again we washbowl see that the momentum this sentence pull up stakes tend towards infinity as we reach the speed of light.Using one of Einsteins most famous equations E = mc2 we toilet now see that if the mass does tend towards infinity that an infinite amount of power get out be needed to remain at constant velocity let alone accelerate.Time distension is another consequence of travelling at relativistic speed. Weve all heard about the twin paradox if one twin went on a plaza go at 99.5% the speed of light and returned in what he judged to be 4 years the other twin with assimilate aged by 40 yrs These exercises foundationnot be seen with humans, yet it has been tested and seen to occur with particles at the nuclear scale. So any sci-fi movie where the astronauts return home after tour other galaxies after travelling at the speed of light is clearly impossible, if they had been travelling for any length of quantify they would commence probably know back to their grandchildren.To explain this if you could imagine a shoes chi drive outery with a light source perpendicular to the motionIf there were an observer on the space vehicle and the light travelled 0.6m it would take 2 nanoseconds to travel that surmount. By apply a simple equation spee d = distance/ fourth dimension the light is travelling speed = 0.6 x 2&21510-9 = 3&215108 ms-1 this should not come to as a surprise as this is the speed of light. However if the observer correspondly was then stationary with the spacecraft moving past them, they would see the light take this directionNow in pre-relativistic (Newtonian) physics, twain observers enrol the equivalent period of beat. Consequently, the velocity recorded by the two observers is different the orb-bound observer would record a greater velocity for the burn of light. scarcely taking into account Einsteins assumption that the speed of light doesnt change, and is the same for both observers, the distance for the light to travel doesnt change as it is not in the direction of travel, the time which the light takes obviously changes. Does this then mean there is no such thing as controlling time?The distance that would brace been observed for the light to travel would have been 1m so victimization the equation time = distance / speed, time = 1 / 3&215108 = 3&21510-9 s, so we can conclude the clock on the space craft is slower than that when stationary.This is given by the equationIf v << c, then the result t/t is very close to 1. But as v approaches c, t/t becomes smaller. Time slows stamp out for the observer on the spacecraft as its speed approaches the speed of lightAnother effect of travelling at the speed of light is length contraction. The spaceship in any sci-fi movie go forth be shortened in the direction of its travel. In similar equations as above of the spacecraft were to travel more than the speed of light the spacecraft would have no dimensions what so ever.Investigation into virtuoso trek technology or treknology as it is popularly known on the World wide Web, I have found some interest theories on how they deliberate that travel at the speed of light is possible. Some of the more interesting ones I will discuss now.An interesting idea is to pull space tim e into waves a special modulated gravity emitter pulls space time into waves. Gravity can be use to bend light like is seen around a colored hole which is an immense gravitational field, down the stairs we can see that the light has been bent in a veer shape by the modulated gravity emitter.By travelling in a straight line among the waves the distance is much shorter the absolute speed is not necessarily higher than light speed, but because we pass across A to B in much shorter time than a beam of light would do, our effective speed is higher than light. We can also use this to build wormholes but can this kind of deal really be realised because of the huge amount of zippo that would be needed to contrive space time in to waves? Its all a question of energy if we can find enough than this drive is possible but where can we get it from?WormholesTravelling through worm holes is not an uncommon idea and even the most unscientific person has toyed with the idea while down the l ocal. The common concept is to make the distance surrounded by two points shorter so not dissimilar to the idea discussed above. We do not how ever have any worm holes at the macroscopic level. Quantum theory predicts them at the microscopical level although they will not be much large than 10 x 10-33, if we can feed it with some kind of energy to drop out it collapsing under the huge gravitational forces that it will impose on itself. But there are still some problems we cant predict where a wormhole will end. And it is also possible that travelling through a wormhole will take you back in time, causation causality paradoxes and if we can predict where wormholes will end, and if we even know how to create a wormhole to the coif where we want to be, we need still very huge amounts of energy.SubspaceWe have this space which is a mantic continuum surrounding our universe, the rocket science world has label it subspace. In star trek this hypothetical space doesnt limit you to li ght speed, but we dont know how to get in to it and most bizarrely even if it exists at all??Warp driveThe famous star trek misrepresent drive is discussed regularly in the field of physics. Its baroned by a tuned plasma stream from a matter/antimatter reactor.Injectors feed the plasma into coils at specific times causing pulses to run the length of the nacelles, front to back. This peristaltic flow should cause the push of nested subspace fields, and moves the ship ship.The Star Trek Technical Manual says that the fields couple and disassociate from each other at velocities near (but less than) c. It could be that the interaction of these fields, combined with the special frame subspace provides, causes the ship as a alone to travel at relativistic speeds. One again we have problems with the amount of energy need to keep us at these warp drive speeds.The designers of the star ship Enterprise use matter/antimatter annihilation to power these drivers. This may seem the stuff fr om science fiction but we use it at the moment to study the brain using PET (positron outpouring tomography) scans.These use the electrons antiparticle called a positron. It has the exact but opposite charge although same mass, these particles can be considered as mirror images of their corresponding particle. When these two particles jar the annihilate each other, they simply vanish, although the energy is still there and is carried away by da Gamma light beam. In pet scanners they detect this gamma radiation and use it to create an image of activity in the brain.Although his is an extremely idle transformation there are some things that do not change, in every annihilation1. charge is conserved,2. momentum (linear and angular) is conserved3. Energy (including rest energy E rest = mc2) is conservedThese conservation laws restrict what can happen only changes in which all conserved quantities remain the same can occur. But we are unsure whether or not this can actually supply u s with enough energy to power this warp speed driver.The star trek enterprise relies on the emission of these gamma rays as a propulsion system and not using the energy from the gamma radiation to power another engine.To get from one place to another in science fiction movies the general idea of time travel is a common occurrence, Back to the Future has had a number of popular sequels that involve travelling forward and back in time, but is this a viable idea in reality?The travel forward in time has already been discussed earlier as this is time dilation and so is some one wanted to go forward in time, they would need to travel at near relativistic speeds for a sizeable length of time and then come back to earth they would then come back at a later time than they had judged on the space craft, and as I have said this is due to the time dilation effect, once the individual has gone forward in time is there a way of going back in time, perchance travelling faster than the speed of light? The theory suggests that as the speed of light is reached there is no time then passing through to proscribe time- from your reference frame. Although this assumes that the speed of light is possible, and as Ive discussed earlier this is not permitted by the special theory of relativity.But not necessarily, Einsteins special theory doesnt allow but Einsteins general theory of relativity allows this, so dread not young time travellers It doesnt take into account effects of speedup or the four forces-the strong, electromagnetic, weak, and gravitational forces. This theory states that the fabric of space time itself is not constant, it can be bent and stretched this is what the treknology relied on, while Special relativity theory imposes a limit to how fast objects can move in space relative to one another, according to General Relativity, there are no limits on how the space in which the objects are placed can move.It is this effect that explains how the speeds of distance galaxies, measured by their red shift, this being the Doppler Effect, can be greater than the speed of light. The truth is, these galaxies are actually not moving much at all relative to the Earth, but the space amongst them is expanding like a balloon, carrying the galaxies with it. With enough expanding space in between the Earth and the observed galaxy, the expansion of space can result in the distance between Earth and the galaxy increasing at a rate greater than c.All of the theories of moving back in time that I have come across involve some sort of contradict energy. The work of one scientist Frank Tipler has stated that the only way to travel back in time is to use contradict energy.But how can you have less than nothing, if you have got less than no energy according to Einstein you have less than no mass.But you can have a condition of negative energy in a emptiness there is actually nothing on the macroscopic level there is a sea of electromagnetic waves and particles that are made at one point in time, in pairs and then annihilated shortly after, exactly as discussed earlier. But if this activity were to be dampened than a condition of negative energy would be created. This is observed near the event horizon of black holes (related to the emission of Hawking radiation), and in laboratories on Earth in the Caasimir Effect.The Caasimir effect happens when two uncharged plates are held very close unitedly less than a hundred nanometers apart. This restrict the number of particles that can fit between the plates, in monetary value of quantum mechanics, any particle that can appear between these plates must have a de Broglie wavelength that fits in the gap.De Broglies relation wavelength = h/pWhere h is planks constant and p is the momentum.Any particle that has the wavelength than this interval can form outside the plates although this means there is a bigger pressure outside of the plates and the resulting pressure difference results in the pl ates being compel together. The space between these plates has shown a property of negative energy that is to have a pressure less than that of a vacuum.Other properties of negative energy are having negative mass so this means that the energy must have a reverse gravitational effect, this allows space-time to be bent and the possibility of backwards time travel. at that place are however some difficulties firstly negative energy must often be wrapped to small spaces, now with most methods a lot of energy is used so need to be confined to a small space. The negative energy cannot exist independently, after appearing it will be counteracted by the large amounts of positive energy.Unfortunately the chances of getting this amount of negative energy before it is neutralised by the positive energy is extremely low. Now unluckily for the moment the only way to travel in time is to star in a Hollywood movie.The theory of relativity has been subject to expansion by British astronomers, w ho have tried to extend the theory to accommodate electromagnetic phenomena The Unified field Theory has tried to concern together the Four Known interactions 1.Strong, which is a short range force that holds atomic nuclei together. 2. Electromagnetic 3. Gravitational. 4. Weak, which is responsible for slow nuclear processes e.g. Beta decay. They are believed to have one common factor or unity that will link all four forces that are none to cause all interactions together. There are still breakthroughs happening all the time that are perpetually testing and rendering the theory of relativity.We have seen a number of aspects of physics that have been clumsily portrayed in the media typical, exaggerated fashion that we have all come to enjoy when we visit the cinema, but who am I to put a stop to this enjoyment, for who knows what the future has to offer in terms of space travel, for years the top minds in the world agreed that the raillery was flat and the atom was the smallest thing that makes up matter, maybe this is another thing, the media has labelled rocket science, we can also change.