From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,9fbc059a74d74032 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-06-05 07:15:33 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!nycmny1-snh1.gtei.net!cambridge1-snf1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!bos-service1.ext.raytheon.com!bos-service2.ext.raytheon.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3B1CE7B8.5958BD4E@ftw.rsc.raytheon.com> From: Wes Groleau X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.75 [en] (WinNT; U) X-Accept-Language: en,es,fr,pt MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: [OT] Black holes for interstellar travel (Re: OT: Relativity misunderstood) References: <3B167715.AA497455@ftw.rsc.raytheon.com> <3B1BCAA6.45CDC440@nbi.dk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2001 09:07:52 -0500 NNTP-Posting-Host: 151.168.144.162 X-Complaints-To: news@ext.ray.com X-Trace: bos-service2.ext.raytheon.com 991749808 151.168.144.162 (Tue, 05 Jun 2001 10:03:28 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2001 10:03:28 EDT Organization: Raytheon Company Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:8157 Date: 2001-06-05T09:07:52-05:00 List-Id: And the topic strays further..... > > Even worse is the notion that black holes are the answer > > to interstellar travel. > If you don't mind travelling to a star in another universe - and > only one-way - black holes could be useful for interstellar > travel. Despite the general understanding of black holes, it > seems that the time you will be exposed to infinite forces > passing through a black hole is sufficiently short not to harm > you. The notion that a black hole is a discontinuity making possible an instantaneous transfer to another location is a hypothesis, not a theory. Has anyone ever volunteered to experimentally test this hypothesis? Has anyone figured out a way to transmit the results of the experiment back to earth? There are indeed scientists who have reasonable-sounding arguments that a black hole may be such a discontinuity. But anyone who thinks such a discontinuity will make interstellar travel feasible may be a paperback or magazine writer or TV star, but not a scientist. Suppose we find that first volunteer. If he should somehow live long enough (yeah, cryogenic suspended animation--another "reasonable idea" that is still a pipe dream or worse) to reach a black hole, the project that sent him there will have been suspended and forgotten by then. What is the smallest known distance between any black hole and any place humans MIGHT want to live at or travel to? Second smallest? Add those distances together. How long will the one-way trip take, assuming the black hole part is instantaneous? -- Wes Groleau, pessimist pro-tem http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~wgroleau