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Old 04-26-2012, 03:15 PM   #149
bill_mchale
Wizard
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Well, FTL travel as it applies two objects at extreme ends of the Universe does not involve velocity in the Newtonian sense. Literally they are traveling apart faster than light but they are doing it because more space is being created between them and since the amount of space being created between two objects is directly dependent on how far apart they are (roughly shown via the Hubble Constant), the farther apart they are, the faster they travel in relation to each other.

Now, since it doesn't involve real velocity, the fact that these objects are travelling apart faster than the speed of light doesn't violate relativity. And since they are casually isolated, it doesn't allow time travel. However, if (and I grant it is a big if) this could be used as the basis of a space drive (as proposed by Miguel Alcubierre), then things get a lot more dicey. If an object can travel FTL in local space, then there will be inertial reference frames where that object is observed to travel backwards in time. In fact, you don't even need an object, you just need information to travel FTL. Never fight a duel at relativistic velocities with a weapon that travels FTL... the results will be very, very confusing.

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Bill
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