faster than the speed of "light"

[halB]

Thought experiment.

Metamaterials (look them up) bend light and allow us to make invisibility cloaks. Soon we will be able to use them to bend the rays of visible light, and maybe, one day, bend all electromagnetic radiation.

So if you build a cloak that is a giant sphere, any light that strikes the sphere from the outside would have to travel around the sphere. Clearly, since the arc of a circle is always longer than the chord of a circle, any light on the outside of the sphere that is traveling about the circumference will be moving slower than any light inside the sphere.

Effectively, the speed of light outside the sphere would be slower (once it hit the sphere) and the speed of light inside the sphere would be faster.


What if we lived on the exterior of this sphere, on the circumference? Hell, holographic theory says we could be living on such a 2-d membrane. If we could get inside the sphere, we should be able to travel faster.

Of course, this is nothing more than the idea of wormholes and all of that.

I think we should focus on tearing holes in space-time - breaking through the sphere. But how?

[LK-13]

considering that there are only 4 forces presently known in our wonderful little universe;
It would seem reasonable that manipulating one or more of these forces is what we will need to do to begin tinkering with Space/Time, Quantum Reality, and other postulated areas of physics.

Particle Accelerators generally manipulate the electromagnetic force to get the particles moving.
It would seem plausible that this would be the force needed to go ripping holes in the universe.
Only I'm thinking that the power requirements would be impossible using current methods of generation.

[vf-xx]

So if you build a cloak that is a giant sphere, any light that strikes the sphere from the outside would have to travel around the sphere. Clearly, since the arc of a circle is always longer than the chord of a circle, any light on the outside of the sphere that is traveling about the circumference will be moving slower than any light inside the sphere.

Logic Flaw. The bolded section is right, but your assumption, underlined, is wrong.

It's not moving slower. It's moving at the same rate of speed, it's path just takes longer. You're not breaking physics.

[Pyrate Jim]

So if you build a cloak that is a giant sphere, any light that strikes the sphere from the outside would have to travel around the sphere. Clearly, since the arc of a circle is always longer than the chord of a circle, any light on the outside of the sphere that is traveling about the circumference will be moving slower than any light inside the sphere.

If the sphere is cloaked, how does light get in?

[halB]

Logic Flaw. The bolded section is right, but your assumption, underlined, is wrong.

It's not moving slower. It's moving at the same rate of speed, it's path just takes longer. You're not breaking physics.

Well, yes and no. Yes, it is moving at the same rate of speed to a god-like observer, someone who is aware of the sphere. However, for the light moving around the outside of the sphere, the light inside is traveling faster.

[halB]

considering that there are only 4 forces presently known in our wonderful little universe;
It would seem reasonable that manipulating one or more of these forces is what we will need to do to begin tinkering with Space/Time, Quantum Reality, and other postulated areas of physics.

Particle Accelerators generally manipulate the electromagnetic force to get the particles moving.
It would seem plausible that this would be the force needed to go ripping holes in the universe.
Only I'm thinking that the power requirements would be impossible using current methods of generation.

You are one hundred percent on the track I am thinking of. If we put too much mass and too much gravity into too small of an area, we get a blackhole, which if you believe is a singularity, it rips open the space-time fabric. So it should stand to reason that too much of any of the other forces might rip open the space-time fabric.

Unfortunately, the electromagnetic force would take too much energy, so it appears. In fact, in order to be able to recreate the forces present near the beginning of the big bang, we would have to have a particle accelerator about the size of our solar system - something so mind bogglingly far off, and so logistically and materially impossible, that I fear it will never happen.