Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site topaz.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!columbia!topaz!EVAN From: EVAN@SU-CSLI.ARPA Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: re: FTL Travel Message-ID: <2702@topaz.ARPA> Date: Sat, 13-Jul-85 15:26:47 EDT Article-I.D.: topaz.2702 Posted: Sat Jul 13 15:26:47 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 15-Jul-85 02:21:16 EDT Sender: daemon@topaz.ARPA Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 17 From: Evan Kirshenbaum>Actually, according to Special Relativity, faster-than-light travel >is just plain impossible. All the sqrt(v^2 / c^2) terms turn >imaginary... I'm sure this shows a shocking naivitee on the subject of relativistic physics, but this argument never made much sense to me. So what if the multiplier turns imaginary. Imaginary numbers have rights too. Besides, since everything on the ship would have an imaginary mass, their ratios would still be real. I've always been surprised that physicists would throw up their hands at this and say "it's impossible" rather than finding out just what the consequences of having imaginary mass, velocity and time would be Evan Kirshenbaum -------