Contact

[Seth928]

You will need to have seen this movie to understand my question. Also, I have placed this in the philosophy section purposely. The question I would like to deal with takes (currently) one of the most fundemental concepts of physics and ignores it completely.

So I'm watching the movie contact and I've gotten to wondering about the climax of the movie. Essentially the movie states that 'Ellie' (Helen Hunt) travels to Vega and back in a total of about 18 hours. I seem to remember something about traveling to vega then being sent to the center of the galaxy but since it was an unknown location at an unknow distance (most likely farther from Earth than Vega) we'll go with Vega for the sake of argument. So the conclusion we reach is that Ellie travels a total of 25.3 light years in a total of 9 hours. That is 973.98 times the speed of light so out goes the theory of realativity.

Realativity states that we can accelerate ourselves infinitely close to the speed of light but the movie chucks that idea out the window.

The question I would like to pose is what do you believe would happen to an individual should we break that infinite barrier? What if we were actually able to breach the speed of light and transport matter faster than a photon? Please explain using scientific principles (ignoring that last little part of realativity).

[eugene40]

[QUOTE]You will need to have seen this movie to understand my question. Also, I have placed this in the philosophy section purposely. The question I would like to deal with takes (currently) one of the most fundemental concepts of physics and ignores it completely.
Good movie.

So I'm watching the movie contact and I've gotten to wondering about the climax of the movie. Essentially the movie states that 'Ellie' (Helen Hunt) travels to Vega and back in a total of about 18 hours. I seem to remember something about traveling to vega then being sent to the center of the galaxy but since it was an unknown location at an unknow distance (most likely farther from Earth than Vega) we'll go with Vega for the sake of argument. So the conclusion we reach is that Ellie travels a total of 25.3 light years in a total of 9 hours. That is 973.98 times the speed of light so out goes the theory of realativity.
THough I haven't read the book. I believe the machine created a worm hole which is suppose to trump traveling at the speed of light and tossing the physics out of it.


The question I would like to pose is what do you believe would happen to an individual should we break that infinite barrier? What if we were actually able to breach the speed of light and transport matter faster than a photon? Please explain using scientific principles (ignoring that last little part of realativity).
I am not sure actually. It will be really cool though.

[Seth928]

[QUOTE=Seth928]
Good movie.


THough I haven't read the book. I believe the machine created a worm hole which is suppose to trump traveling at the speed of light and tossing the physics out of it.



I am not sure actually. It will be really cool though.

Fine forget the movie! It was just a spring board for inquiry. :banghead:

[bowerbird]

Seth - would you like this thread moved so the new thread can exist alone??

[Seth928]

Seth - would you like this thread moved so the new thread can exist alone??

No, they're two different threads asking two different questions.

[bowerbird]

No worries;)

[Blueangel]

Essentially the movie states that 'Ellie' (Helen Hunt) travels to Vega and back in a total of about 18 hours. Jodie Foster played Ellie, not Helen Hunt.

[IDK]

Jodie Foster played Ellie, not Helen Hunt.
they look a lot alike, though

[IDK]

This may be over-simplified, but think of an X , Y graph, with speed = d/t (distance over time), so the Y would be distance and the X would be time. As your distance increases over shorter period of time, the line that is graphed continues to move up. Whe it began and you were at rest, the line was level with X, equalling 0 distance over however much time you remained at rest, but if you move fast enough, you will reach the point of infinite distance over no time... which.. is just mind boggling. This is impossible, though, cause if you were to stop, where would you end up? And if you were to move faster, you would be going back in time.... confusing... I guess that's why there's a barrier

[Typopostive]

Unfortunately, the movie 'Contact' became more ridiculous towards the end, almost to the point of being 'unbelieveable'. I believe that 'Ellie' meeting and having some 'chat time' with her father on Vega or where ever it was, destroyed the meaning of what the movie was trying to communicate to the audience. However, I applaud the beginning of the movie. It was none-the-less thrilling to see the story leading up to actual 'contact' made by Ellie" with the radio telescope array in New Mexico. At least that part made the movie worth watching.

[JoeR]

The book, of course, is better.

[USViking]

You will need to have seen this movie to understand my question. Also, I have placed this in the philosophy section purposely. The question I would like to deal with takes (currently) one of the most fundemental concepts of physics and ignores it completely.

So I'm watching the movie contact and I've gotten to wondering about the climax of the movie. Essentially the movie states that 'Ellie' (Helen Hunt) travels to Vega and back in a total of about 18 hours. I seem to remember something about traveling to vega then being sent to the center of the galaxy but since it was an unknown location at an unknow distance (most likely farther from Earth than Vega) we'll go with Vega for the sake of argument. So the conclusion we reach is that Ellie travels a total of 25.3 light years in a total of 9 hours. That is 973.98 times the speed of light so out goes the theory of realativity.

Realativity states that we can accelerate ourselves infinitely close to the speed of light but the movie chucks that idea out the window.

The question I would like to pose is what do you believe would happen to an individual should we break that infinite barrier? What if we were actually able to breach the speed of light and transport matter faster than a photon? Please explain using scientific principles (ignoring that last little part of realativity).

I think the prevailing current concensus is that
superluminal effects do exist, but that nothing
of use to humans, including superluminal transmission
of information, is possible.

John Gribbin in Q is for Quantum and Nick Herbert in Quantum Reality attempt to explain the baffling situation.

Even with them, there remains no possibility of
any massive object attaining the speed of light.

You can make up anything you want in fiction
which allows the impossible.

[Hawkins]

Vega is where the noise was from. Where Ellie went may or may not be Vega.

It's a good movie, i didn't read the book thou.