doug@escher.UUCP (Douglas J Freyburger) (08/07/85)
> Well, I'll start a new topic. Now after the Enterprise zips by, we see > it fading off into the distance. There is no problem finding shows where > the Enterprise flys by a speeds faster than the speed of light. > > I propose that when the Enterprise zips by faster than the speed of light, > the we should NOT be able to see it from behind since the light "particles" > coming from behind it would not be able to catch up to it, bounce off, and > come back for use to "see" them. I feel that the particles shouldn't be > able to reflect off of the back of the Enterprise (since they aren't fast > enough to "touch" it), so we shouldn't be able to see it. I would think > we would see a faint outline on places where the light would reflect. > Mike Laman There is a better account of what an FTL ship would look like in some of the Berzerker stories by Fred Saberhagen. When approaching at FTL, you'd see the ship appear in-place, and then a sort of retrograde image of it would jump backwards from it. It was going faster than light, so its reflection from close by would get to you before its reflection from far away. So you get an instant appearance with a speed-of-light trailing image moving away from you. With the ship past you and moving away, I'm not so sure you'd see it at all. If you would, you'd get reflections from the sides of the craft? Anyways, it'd appear to be receding at the speed-of-light, but it would be too faint by the factor of its light-speeds. Erk. Does that make sense? I don't think I understand the imagery enough on the receding ship. Even better, the big-E uses a "warp drive". If that means it warps space something like a black hole to evade the speed-of-light barrier without becoming a tachyon and ceasing to exist, then we shouldn't be able to see it at all except by occultations (sp?). I get the impression that this "warp drive" is more like some of the "subspace" drives we've read about. It puts you in sub-space where the "sub-light" goes real-fast/infinitely-fast. If this is the case, then their graphics computers do an impressive job of adding together the "normal-space" light and the "sub-light" images so we can see both on the viewscreen. Most novels that use these drives just have the viewscreens go mottled gray. Doug Freyburger DOUG@JPL-VLSI, DOUG@JPL-ROBOTICS, JPL 171-235 ...escher!doug, doug@aerospace, Pasadena, CA 91109 etc.
ccrrick@ucdavis.UUCP (Rick Heli) (08/13/85)
> > Well, I'll start a new topic. Now after the Enterprise zips by, we see > > it fading off into the distance. There is no problem finding shows where > > the Enterprise flys by a speeds faster than the speed of light. > > > > I propose that when the Enterprise zips by faster than the speed of light, > > the we should NOT be able to see it from behind since the light "particles" > > coming from behind it would not be able to catch up to it, bounce off, and > > come back for use to "see" them. I feel that the particles shouldn't be > > able to reflect off of the back of the Enterprise (since they aren't fast > > enough to "touch" it), so we shouldn't be able to see it. I would think > > we would see a faint outline on places where the light would reflect. > > Mike Laman > I recall reading that originally the Enterprise WAS supposed to disappear when it went into warp speed, but that the idea was basically scrapped except for the solitary use of the effect in "Mirror, Mirror." -- --rick heli (... ucbvax!ucdavis!groucho!ccrrick)