[ExI] spaceship string theory

Jef Allbright jef at jefallbright.net
Wed Jul 16 19:14:26 UTC 2008


On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 9:27 AM, Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 5:48 PM, Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> At 08:27 AM 7/16/2008 -0700, Jef wrote:
>>
>>> As for the question of the spaceships and the strings, what could
>>> possibly distinguish a system of spaceships connected by string from a
>>> system of spaceship components?  In other words, if the strings must
>>> break, then mustn't also the connections between components of the
>>> ship?
>>
>> That was my intuition also. Clearly this explains the Fermi Absence--when
>> spacecraft travel close enough to c to make interstellar travel feasible,
>> they disintegrate. Bad luck. <optional smiley>
>
> In fact, one should infer that any object at all is bound to break as it
> approaches c. What about string-string, as in M-theory? :-///

I just realized that while Damien and Stefano appeared to agree with
my intuitive model, they apparently reached the opposite conclusion
from my own.  I thought initially that they were both being ironic.

My point was that we have NO evidence of such disintegrative effects
(or their cousins) at any fraction of c, despite many experiments,
albeit with objects much less massive than spaceships.  My conclusion
was that the string would quite obviously NOT break, despite
observation from a different inertial frame showing the distance
increasing.  It seems to me as simple as pointing out that the
multiple spacecraft and their strings form a single system within a
single inertial frame of reference.

- Jef



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