Lesson Four

[Malefact]

[ModNote: Following Lesson Three and Assignment Three.]

In this lesson, we shall look at the magical science of faster-than-light travel!

We'll start with some basic theory. All objects have a mass. In order to move an object, a force must be applied. Force = mass * acceleration. So, surely it is possible in theory to accelerate an object to the speed of light and beyond? Nope.

Firstly, the speed of light is the universal speed limit. It is impossible to travel faster than this speed. This is because of uncertainty. As we have already seen, nothing in this universe is certain. This means that events may have more than one possible outcome, which allows for multiple universes to breed, allowing for the fifth dimension to expand in size to match the first four as they expand (note that the universe is expanding).

Let's suppose that we are selecting a value for the speed of light. Let's also suppose that light is being emitted from a source (say, a lamp) and is travelling towards the observer (us). In the time is takes for it to get to us, things may happen to it. The photons may interact with other particles, fuzzing the information we receive. The slower the light is, the more fuzzing there will be, on average. The more fuzzing there is, the greater the lack of certainty we have with regards to information of what the emitting object actually is.

If light travels at an infinite speed (i.e. no time elapses between it being emitted and it reaching its destination) then there will be no fuzzing and therefore no uncertainty - which cannot be. If light travels too slowly, there is too much fuzzing and the fifth dimension will expand at too great a rate.

So, the speed of light is what it is because of uncertainty. And uncertainty is what it is because of the speed of light. Geddit?

This also means that it is impossible to exceed the speed of light - as you speed up, there is more and more fuzzing. It will be more and more difficult to perceive you. As a result, when you reach the speed of light itself you will become a quantum singularity - infinite mass and zero volume - because the less you can be perceived, the less you actually EXIST. (Remember the Existential Shield?)

In fact, the closer you get to the speed of light, the more difficult it gets to accelerate - the force required increases exponentially. This is because your mass is increasing exponentially (Force = mass * acceleration, remember). The universe is resisting your speed increase. This is because you generate far more events when you're big and slow (volume is a third-power function whereas velocity is just one) than when you're tiny and fast (you shrink as you accelerate, too).

So, how is it possible to travel faster than the speed of light? How is it even possible to reach the speed of light at all? Watch this space.

[ringmasterrob]

Another lesson up already Malefact you certainly are efficent ;D

[Malefact]

Well, there's a lot to get through before this year is out.

[ringmasterrob]

0of course, of course

[GreenDragon]

*thinks* So because you can't travel faster than the speed of light, that's why warp-travel can't really be invented...because space travellers would end up as nothing. Ulp!

[Malefact]

Actually, it can. Watch this space.

[GreenDragon]

*Puts apple on Knight Malefact's desk*

Have this apple for being such a great teacher! ;D

[ringmasterrob]

*mutters* Showoff

[Malefact]

Hehe, thanks!

The trick with faster-than-light travel is, in fact, not to travel faster than light at all! Allow me to explain...

Have any of you ever skimmed stones across a pond? The principal here is exactly the same. Instead of crossing every point on the line from A to B, we hop - skipping several points every time. If we travel at 5m/s whilst skipping every second point, we will appear to travel at 10m/s. If we travel at 5m/s whilst skipping every second and third point, we will appear to travel at 15m/s.

How do we skip points, though? Well, first we need to be sure whether the universe actually does consist of points. For all we know, we could be able to zoom in forever on a small patch of space and discover new things ad infinitum.

This is false, however. The universe is indeed pixellated - there is a smallest-possible size, a fundamental unit of space (in any case, we have already seen that there is a fundamental unit of time, the t-unit, which we dealt with when referring to Events using SHUNT). These are called s-units and occupy one point in all dimensions. They can house just one Event per t-unit.

It can be proved by contradiction that the universe is pixellated. If the universe wasn't pixellated then size would become meaningless. Because we could theoretically look at things infinitely small, we would effectively become infinitely big. This would mean that difference in size, mass etc. between different objects would become zero. And yet, if we weigh a feather and then a lead ball we observe a difference. Therefore, a fundamental unit of size exists.

So, now we know that the universe does indeed consist of points, we can proceed.

All we have to do is set up a system of spells that cause us to skip points. But how do we decide on a suitable method? Next time, I'll tell you exactly what this method is, why it works and how it can be implemented.

[ringmasterrob]

excellent ;D I look forward to the simulator

[Malefact]

Right! As promised, here's how it is done:

Imagine a sheet of paper. It has two dots at either end. The closest distance between these two dots is a straight line between them, right? Wrong. The closest distance is zero. How is this possible? Simply fold the sheet of paper to make the points touch. It's as simple as that.

Let's now say that we want to travel, skipping every second point - which will double our objective speed (i.e. we will appear to travel at double the speed that we are actually travelling at). First, however, we must actually DEFINE movement.

Any object in this universe occupies points - s-units, to be precise. Let's concentrate on just one of these points. We wish to move this object one s-unit in a given direction. When this happens, the *contents* of this particular point is shifted along to the next one. The emphasis is on the contents: the s-units themselves are static - it is only their contents that moves. The contents of the destination point is shifted, too, to accomodate the new contents.

So, ordinary movement (on the most fundamental level) is the transfer of contents of a given s-unit into a given *adjacent* s-unit.

We wish to skip points, though. To do this, we must remove the constraint that states that the destination point must be adjacent. How is this achieved?

There exists a spell called FOLD, which does just this. Before casting, you must specify a ratio. If you want to skip every second point (doubling your speed), you specify 1/2. If you want to skip every second and third point (tripling your speed), you specify 1/3. A more complicated variant of FOLD exists, where you can specify ratios whose accumulators can equal something other than 1, but there is no need to go into that here.

The universe is actually quite accomodating of this spell, which makes a nice change. Despite skipping points, you can still interact freely with matter. Only when you set ratios where the denominator is so big the ratio tends towards zero that things start getting a bit peculiar. In fact, the number of points that you can safely skip at once should not exceed the quantum scale, otherwise Uncertainty will mess up quite spectacularly. (We will be exploring this next lesson, in fact, as a means of preparing a very unusual spell indeed)

Any questions?

[ringmasterrob]

None at all, that was clear as crystal ;D

[Malefact]

Hmm, right! ;D

Point of interest: Composite spells exist that have a pre-specified ratio built in. The purpose of these is to save time - and to be as idiot-proof as possible to novice spellcasters!

Various aliases include: DASH (with a 1/3 ratio), BURST (1/2) and SPEED (1/2).

In this lesson's assignment, you will be having a go at FOLD motion for yourselves. Be prepared for quite a rush, though!