Alyaarn Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 Alright, we'll I'm supposed to be writing an article for my high-school newsletter. Being a lowly novice of physics, I thought I'd right one on the Alcubierre warp drive. Any tips on how to really dumb the physics down? Should I really mention positronium, or any other exotic matter? What about a Miguel Inferormeter and how it curves space-time by its appearance in energized states? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajb Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 If it is for a high school newsletter than I suggest you talk about general relativity rather loosely and quite informally working up to the possibility of warp drive. You could skip the need for a detailed account of exotic matter in my opinion, basically the idea is that you need negative energy. The readers will appreciate analogies and diagrams where possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timo Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 The Drake Equation in your avatar may be a more suitable topic for a high-school newsletter, anyway. Easier to explain and potentially interesting to more people. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyaarn Posted February 11, 2013 Author Share Posted February 11, 2013 If it is for a high school newsletter than I suggest you talk about general relativity rather loosely and quite informally working up to the possibility of warp drive. You could skip the need for a detailed account of exotic matter in my opinion, basically the idea is that you need negative energy. The readers will appreciate analogies and diagrams where possible. General Relativity? Alright, I'll give it a go on my second paper. Yet that seems to be at tie with the Great Attractor... Nonetheless, I will have to watch some lectures to familiarize myself with that. I humbly thank you for your kind advice. Yet, I have another question. Would I be able to understand General Relativity? I mean I'm proficient enough in Highschool Calculus and Classical Mechanics... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elfmotat Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 (edited) General Relativity? Alright, I'll give it a go on my second paper. Yet that seems to be at tie with the Great Attractor... Nonetheless, I will have to watch some lectures to familiarize myself with that. I humbly thank you for your kind advice. Yet, I have another question. Would I be able to understand General Relativity? I mean I'm proficient enough in Highschool Calculus and Classical Mechanics... You'd need at minimum some experience with Vector Calculus, Linear Algebra, and Special Relativity. After that Bernard Schutz's intro GR textbook is probably your best bet. Edited February 11, 2013 by elfmotat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajb Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 General Relativity? Alright, I'll give it a go on my second paper. Yet that seems to be at tie with the Great Attractor...Warp drives, wormholes and so on require a little general relativity. Really no more than the statement that space-time can have non-trivial geometry. Well, for wormholes, a little topology is useful.Nonetheless, I will have to watch some lectures to familiarize myself with that. I humbly thank you for your kind advice. Yet, I have another question. Would I be able to understand General Relativity? I mean I'm proficient enough in Highschool Calculus and Classical Mechanics...You should be able to get across the basic "feeling" of general relativity and from there discuss warp drives. Think all in 2d. A metric is a "generalisation" of Pythagoras' theorem and curvature can be demonstrated using parallel transport of vectors on a sphere. GR then says "matter content" = "local geometry" This opens up your warp drives, wormholes, time travel and so on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now