torsdag 1 augusti 2024

Travel Faster than Light!

Recent posts show that with the 2019 SI Standard, Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity SR no longer is a theory about physics, since the main postulate of SR stating that the speed of light is the same for all observers as a physical fact, which may be true or false, is turned into simply an agreement, which has no truth value. 

This means that SR has no real physical content and so can be dismissed without losing any real physics. In particular the main result of SR that nothing can travel faster light, no longer is supported by theory (nor by observation see PS1).

We are thus back to the end of the 19th century facing the null result of the Michelson-Morley experiment signifying that there is no unique aether for the propagation of electromagnetic waves. Instead of following Einstein claiming that the MM experiment shows that (i) there is no aether at all then leading to SR, we follow the other possibility that (ii) there are many different aethers leading to Many-Minds Relativity MMR.

Let us now see what Newtonian Mechanics NM and MMR have to say about travel faster than light. Let us then consider an $x$-axis with distances marked according to the 2019 SI Standard thus distance in terms of travel time of light with an agreed speed of light equal to 1. Consider a rocket of unit mass traveling through vacuum starting from rest at $x=0$ at time $t=0$ propelled by a rocket engine delivering a thrust $F=1$. 

Newton would say that the rocket velocity $v(t)$ at time $t>0$ is given by $v=t$, thus faster than light for $t>1$.

MMR is different from NM by measuring velocity in terms of Doppler shift, which gives the different rocket velocity $v(t)=\exp(t)-1$, even faster than light for $t>1$.

We conclude that a rocket moving through vacuum subject to a thrust $F=1$ will eventually reach a velocity which is larger than the speed of light. This gives new perspective on the feasibility of human space travel. Maybe it is possible to reach the star closest to Earth (Proxima Centauri) in much less than 4.3 years...if only thrust can be maintained...  

PS1 Recall that there are observations of distant galaxies appearing (from red shift) to recede with a speed more than 10 times the speed of light, in direct contradiction to SR.

PS2 To a mathematician the distinction between definition and theorem is clear. A theorem can (be proven to) be true or false, while trying to prove or disprove a definition would be viewed to be silly. It is also possible to view a theorem as a statement which can be proved to be true, and use the term conjecture as a statement which may be proved to be true or false. But to a physicist educated by Einstein the distinction between theorem/conjecture and definition is muddeled. That the speed of light is the same to all observers, is by Einstein's followers viewed to be both a statement about a physical fact (theorem/conjecture), which can be true or false, and an agreement (definition), which has no value as true or false. By shifting between physical fact/theorem and agreement/definition,  Einstein has confused generations of physicists. It is time to return to use basic principles of mathematical reasoning and make a clear distinction between fact and agreement. Then there is no place for SR after 2019.   


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