Invisible wrote:
> Never mind the "minor detail" of the fact that "stationary" doesn't 
> exist in outer space.

Sure it does.  There does exist absolute motion that can be measured 
even if there's nothing else in the universe--rotation, for instance. 
And I personally suspect that there's some subtle difference between 
gravity and motion affecting something that we just haven't thought of 
yet, which will allow distinguishing between whether you're moving vs. 
just feeling the pull of something else.

> Or the fact that things don't make that "swoshing" noise in space. In 
> fact, they don't make *any* noise!

Actually they do.  It can be safely assumed the ship is constantly 
leaking some negligible amount of atmosphere, and if you get within the 
envelope of that, you can hear it swooshing as it moves past!

> Well, the fastest starships reputedly reach Warp 10 (i.e., 10c). Never 
> mind the "minor detail" that this would cause the ship to travel 
> backwards in time, and have an imaginary mass. (Irony?)

Actually, from what I remember of the Technical Manual, it's not a 1:1 
multiplicative correlation between warp speed and c, more like 
exponential.  Warp 1 *is* c, but warp 10 is 'occupies every point in 
universe simultaneously' and requires theoretically infinite 
energy...warp 9 is Really Really fast.  Because just 10x the speed of 
light still leaves months, if not *years* between most stars.

--
Tim Cook
http://empyrean.freesitespace.net

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