--- Oren Beck oren_beck@hotmail.com wrote:

Jack wrote:

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Ok, this is way OT, but ... they're making black holes in the lab now. Let's

hope

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they don't let one out. :'o

http://news.com.com/In+labs+high-speed+collisions%2C+things+just+vanish/2100...

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Is it OT if the control software or modeling tools are Open Source?

Perhaps the engine design can be rendered on a Linux server farm?

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Now does anyone on this list have the real maths background to offer some intelligent comments on which of us is on or off track here.

Well what equation set are you looking for here? I've had most every Math offered at an undergrad level, and have several deggrees in Math. Tell me what equation you're looking for and I can probably give it to you, or look it up in one of my reference books or derive it if not there. Provided it is a known equation. Of course, some equations are not "solveable" and I would probably have to resort to Engineering Math tricks (ie polynomial solutions) to come up with a "solution" to the equation(s).

I'm quite certain that one could take the Brookhaven accelerator and place it in a spacecraft and achieve relativistic speeds. I would need to know the mass of it and the volume of possible output to calculate a final velocity. However, simply saying that it is possible to do doesn't imply it is practical or even doable from a "cost" perspective. It might well cost $100 Trillion dollars to equip such a spacecraft, not to mention it would be probably a mile long. However, you must remember that a spacecraft that leaves orbit burning fuel at a constant rate will create a craft travelling at a constant rate of acceleration. No drag. The only thing preventing such a craft from reaching lightspeed is the effect of energy increase necessary as you approach lightspeed. I have no doubt that a particle accelerator is capable of propelling a vehicle to .6C to .8C, but they are real expensive babys and the amount of fuel needed might not be realistic. However, if we could find a way to mass produce metallic Hydrogen then we might have something. By the way Voyager is using this basic principle on a very small scale. Ion propulsion, and Voyager is still accelerating and got a nice boost from several heavenly bodies. Voyager will continue to accelerate for many many years, until the radioisotopic material decays sufficiently. Might be an interesting math problem to calculate the final velocity of Voyager.

Brian D.

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