Phaedrus, this is a hypothetical discussion. I am not proposing to do this today with today's technologies. It is a hypothetical method which would be plausible with the suggested future technology applied.

I will ask you to cease posting to this topic if you cannot add to the discussion instead of taking so long doubting one person's (my) idea.

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It is not fear that will destroy you, but the absence of it.
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You could actually have a solar sail attached to the ship to aim the laser at. But it would be much more efficient to use a bigger source of light (ie the Sun).

Light isn't just waves, because it has some particle aspects as well. Its another one of those weird things with wave-particle duality.

Anyway, you just get a reall big, thin, light sheet (some research has been done into this I believe) and then just spread it out and let the light hit it. Of course, it is quite trickey to steer...

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"Give a man a fire and you keep him warm for a night, but set him on fire and you keep him warm for the rest of his life" - Sergent Colon

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Hey, Rooster, calm down. It isn't personal that someone disagrees with you. It actually makes the topic more interesting, you know, scientific debate and all that fun stuff! Think more about what you are proposing and try to explain it so we can understand what exactly you mean(I for one am confused by several people. But I don't know much about this Anyway, just enjoy yourself and don't get upset. That is my 2˘ worth anyway

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"Do not try to bend the spoon, that is impossible. Simply try to realize the truth." "What is that?" "There is no spoon" "There is no spoon..." Eirrrrnnn

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Originally posted by Phaedrus De Fang:
**You cannot attach yourself to light, since it has no mass, and is just waves.
**

Actually they are starting to believe it is made of particles, not waves. (quantum physics)

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Raptor
~If you find yourself trying to gather your thoughts ask yourself: 'How do you gather chaos...'
Recent research has shown that the biggest work saving device employed today is tomarrow.

Very true. I already knew about that, but I chose to overlook it in my argument. However, my central point is still correct, light has no carrying power, even if it is particle and not wave.

BTW, in any discussion of anything, one should attempt to keep it Slightly based in reality, and thats what I'm doing. It's a great idea, except that laser would have to be powered by a star, and it would be like hitting a plane with a cannon shell and assuming that it'll get it up to flying velocity from that one kick. Sure it might work some time, but there are already more practical methods, and practicality always dominates.

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Life: Terminal, unrecoverable, completely useless phenomonon - Me

That's what i wanted to hear!

I would like to know what you think are more practical methods, though. I made this topic to find out just what they would be, not to discuss just my method.

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It is not fear that will destroy you, but the absence of it.
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Originally posted by raptor:
**Actually they are starting to believe it is made of particles, not waves. (quantum physics)
**

It's Both. (and neither)
When you can explain the quintessential quantum mechanics demonstration 'double-slit' experiment, we can throw some other ideas around. But it shows it can't be just particles. Likewise, photons are not just wave-forms, either. Do a search on 'Feynman diagrams' for one popular way of looking at it. There are others that work mathmatically, but that one's probably easiest to fathom.

Now as Glenn posted (way back up there, page one, 2nd post), you can't ride a laser beam.
As SilverDragon posted, it makes no difference as lightspeed is too slow anyway. So ignoring the fact it's impossible, it also won't do you any good.
The nearest star to the Sun is Proxima Centauri, which is about 4.3 light years away. Lightspeed would let you get to Pluto in about 6 hours, assuming you could stop and start almost instantaneously.
Next idea?

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"This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays." DNA
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Originally posted by Phaedrus De Fang:
**
BTW, in any discussion of anything, one should attempt to keep it Slightly based in reality, and thats what I'm doing. It's a great idea, except that laser would have to be powered by a star, and it would be like hitting a plane with a cannon shell and assuming that it'll get it up to flying velocity from that one kick. Sure it might work some time, but there are already more practical methods, and practicality always dominates.
**

Heck we might as well make a dysons' sphere while we're at it

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Raptor
~If you find yourself trying to gather your thoughts ask yourself: 'How do you gather chaos...'
Recent research has shown that the biggest work saving device employed today is tomarrow.

Light does not always travel the speed of light, I think i read in discover last year that they slowed the speed of light down to around 32 miles per hour. Hey a cheetah could hunt it down and eat it!

~Daniel

But besides, physics more so then any other science is constantly proven wrong. For anyone to take something that is considered "Fact" to be indisputable even something as simple as Newtons laws, is pretty dumb. I am convinced everything we are saying now, even something as seemingly true as the theory of relativity will eventually and enevitably disproven. I don't think that anything is neccesarily impossible just because what we say now doesnt work with it. Seriously how can light be waves and particles and neither. It is hippocritical. It is a crutch for lazy scientists to not reconsider their take on things fully. In my opinion the same way people see inconsistancies in the bible, but not stop taking it as the gospel truth, and therefore give up that form of religion

~Daniel Keller
Mr. Pinko Atheistika

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Originally posted by SilverDragon:
**Actually, laser beams can be used to carry vessels. That is one of the current possible theories on how to make in-space transport - a laser beam on Earth carries the ship to Luna, a station is set up there with a laser beam, and that carries you back to Earth, all at light speeds.
**

With you... somewhat. You could use a 'sail' to stop photons (light) each of which would impart a minute acceleration to your ship. You wouldn't be travelling at the speed of light, though. Consider how a ship is moved by the wind... it doesn't move at the same speed as the wind. You'd be lucky to attain Apollo-like speeds without melting your sail.

You'd need your second laser, based on the moon, before you got there. When you'd travelled half the distance to the moon, you would need to turn off the Earth laser, and fire up the Moon laser. Otherwise, you'd smack in. (A parachutists' term, but I'm sure you get the meaning.)

Finally, remember that there is another massive source of photons in the solar system... the good old Sun. It might help, and it might hinder your light-sailing efforts, depending on where it was in the sky. Sunspots might even mean that your weather stations would need to issue 'storm warnings' when there was sunspot activity.

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Originally posted by teknologika:
But besides, physics more so then any other science is constantly proven wrong. For anyone to take something that is considered "Fact" to be indisputable even something as simple as Newtons laws, is pretty dumb. I am convinced everything we are saying now, even something as seemingly true as the theory of relativity will eventually and enevitably disproven. I don't think that anything is neccesarily impossible just because what we say now doesnt work with it. Seriously how can light be waves and particles and neither. It is hippocritical.

yea, things are very often disproven.
but the very universe can be extreamly hippocritical, mostly in things we dont understand. How can light be both and neither? probably by being something in between, not quite a wave but not quite a particle.
a couple of posts ago someone said that light could travel at 30 somthing mph. this is sort of true. basicly they just found a way around it by putting some sort of gas in its way. i dont fully understand this sort of thing, but im pretty sure that light traveling at 35mph say, in space, would have some very wierd effects on space/time.

Quote

Originally posted by teknologika:
Seriously how can light be waves and particles and neither. It is hippocritical. It is a crutch for lazy scientists to not reconsider their take on things fully.

For what it's worth, modern science says that all matter (not just light) has this same particle-wave duality. it's just that for anything larger than an atom, the wavelength (which is I think inversely proportional to mass) is unnoticeably small.

And out of curiosity, how would you "take things on fully" to eliminate the wave/particle nature of light? It definitely has properties of both.

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