Post by hydrophilic on Aug 30, 2015 10:05:51 GMT
I going to get quite geeky in this post... so those afraid of technical details should leave now.
Wow you're still here? Bravo!
If you live in a large city, then you probably enjoy fiber or cable internet service. But if you live in a rural area, you might be stuck with DSL or Satellite (or God forbid, POTS [<64K]).
One option that has received very mixed opinions is Satellite internet service. Although it typically gives greater download/upload speeds than DSL, it has *huge* problem with latency. Let me give an example... suppose you (Bob) want to communicate with another (Alice) who is very close to you.
Assuming you are using a Satellite in geo-synchinous orbit which (miraculously) is directly above you both (about 23,000 km), then propagation delay for HTTP (or similar protocol) would 2x distance = 2x (23Mm to satellite + 23Mm from satellite)... or 4x distance of 23Mm... or 92Mm (92,000 km). Since the speed of light is fixed at about 300,000 km/s (or 300 Mm/s), this means a propagation delay of about 307ms.
Now 307 milliseconds (about 3 frames per second) is okay for casual use (surfing the web or playing "solitaire"), it fails with "twitchy" games like racing cars or shooting rebels.
There is no known way to surpass the "light speed limit", so unless we use lower (non-geo-synchronous) satellites, this is a problem for gamers (or any other "hyper real-time" app).
TO THE POINT
It seems to me the limited speed of photons ("light") is a physical barrier. So my question is this: is there any other way to transmit information, hopefully, faster than light?
SIDE TRACK
The speed of light has been a fundamental calculation for the structure of universe (according to scientists) all the way back to the "big bang". I like to think most of us know of the "big bang" theory: in the beginning of our universe, space expanded FASTER than the speed of light (inflation), but soon the universe slowed its expansion to "sub-luminal" rates, and although the universe keeps expanding, gravity slows it down...
I have a point, so please, stay with me on this...
Before 2011, it was assumed our universe had only a few possible outcomes:
They tell us the all options (1, 2, and 3, above) are wrong! These give us a new theory:
4. Gravity is irrelevant, gravity does *not* slow expansion of our universe... on the contrary, these recent observations show that universal expansion is not slowing (like gravity suggests), but rather increasing!
In other words, gravity is not only weak, but "hyper-weak"... our universe to continues to expand faster and faster, despite the pull of gravity.
COMMUNICATION THEORY
So using photons / LASERS to communicate data is limited to about 300,000 Km/s (due to the speed of light).
But what about outer factors? Because gravity is weak (compared to electro-magnatism), it is not surprising that universe expands faster than gravity can pull it together... in other words, I think it is possible that "gravitons" have a speed-limit much less than the speed of light. If this were true (I have no proof), then it would explain the current expansion of the universe (gravity is too slow, compared to light/photons).
This "speed of gravity" is too new for any of us to give reliable/accurate predictions...
But think about the OPPOSITE... what if we tried to communicate with a force more powerful than either gravity or light? What if we build a fleet of GASER satellites? (GASER = Gluon Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation). The strong force (mediated by gluons), is more powerfull than either gravity or electro-magnatism... so maybe it can be transmitted faster than the speed of light? At the speed of gluons? (who knows how fast that is!)
Maybe I am wrong... maybe photons, gravitons, and gluons all have a maximum speed of (about) 300,000 km/s....
But what if I am right? I think slower gravitons would explain the continual expansion of our universe.
And I think faster gluons would increase internet speed... of course if this were true, we have a huge technological barrier to knock down...
But I think it is important to think "outside the box". Right or wrong, we need to try... right?
Wow you're still here? Bravo!
If you live in a large city, then you probably enjoy fiber or cable internet service. But if you live in a rural area, you might be stuck with DSL or Satellite (or God forbid, POTS [<64K]).
One option that has received very mixed opinions is Satellite internet service. Although it typically gives greater download/upload speeds than DSL, it has *huge* problem with latency. Let me give an example... suppose you (Bob) want to communicate with another (Alice) who is very close to you.
Assuming you are using a Satellite in geo-synchinous orbit which (miraculously) is directly above you both (about 23,000 km), then propagation delay for HTTP (or similar protocol) would 2x distance = 2x (23Mm to satellite + 23Mm from satellite)... or 4x distance of 23Mm... or 92Mm (92,000 km). Since the speed of light is fixed at about 300,000 km/s (or 300 Mm/s), this means a propagation delay of about 307ms.
Now 307 milliseconds (about 3 frames per second) is okay for casual use (surfing the web or playing "solitaire"), it fails with "twitchy" games like racing cars or shooting rebels.
There is no known way to surpass the "light speed limit", so unless we use lower (non-geo-synchronous) satellites, this is a problem for gamers (or any other "hyper real-time" app).
TO THE POINT
It seems to me the limited speed of photons ("light") is a physical barrier. So my question is this: is there any other way to transmit information, hopefully, faster than light?
SIDE TRACK
The speed of light has been a fundamental calculation for the structure of universe (according to scientists) all the way back to the "big bang". I like to think most of us know of the "big bang" theory: in the beginning of our universe, space expanded FASTER than the speed of light (inflation), but soon the universe slowed its expansion to "sub-luminal" rates, and although the universe keeps expanding, gravity slows it down...
I have a point, so please, stay with me on this...
Before 2011, it was assumed our universe had only a few possible outcomes:
- Gravity wins! Gravity is more powerful than the Big Bang... eventually gravity "wins" and reverses universal expansion into the "big crunch"
- Gravity is equal. Gravity pulls the universe together EXACTLY as fast as the "big bang" tries to expand... the universe will slowly creep to a "maximum size" but will never reach that maximum, nor will it implode in a "big crunch".
- Gravity is weak. Although gravity slows expansion of our universe, the universe continues to expand, although slower and slower over time.
They tell us the all options (1, 2, and 3, above) are wrong! These give us a new theory:
4. Gravity is irrelevant, gravity does *not* slow expansion of our universe... on the contrary, these recent observations show that universal expansion is not slowing (like gravity suggests), but rather increasing!
In other words, gravity is not only weak, but "hyper-weak"... our universe to continues to expand faster and faster, despite the pull of gravity.
COMMUNICATION THEORY
So using photons / LASERS to communicate data is limited to about 300,000 Km/s (due to the speed of light).
But what about outer factors? Because gravity is weak (compared to electro-magnatism), it is not surprising that universe expands faster than gravity can pull it together... in other words, I think it is possible that "gravitons" have a speed-limit much less than the speed of light. If this were true (I have no proof), then it would explain the current expansion of the universe (gravity is too slow, compared to light/photons).
This "speed of gravity" is too new for any of us to give reliable/accurate predictions...
But think about the OPPOSITE... what if we tried to communicate with a force more powerful than either gravity or light? What if we build a fleet of GASER satellites? (GASER = Gluon Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation). The strong force (mediated by gluons), is more powerfull than either gravity or electro-magnatism... so maybe it can be transmitted faster than the speed of light? At the speed of gluons? (who knows how fast that is!)
Maybe I am wrong... maybe photons, gravitons, and gluons all have a maximum speed of (about) 300,000 km/s....
But what if I am right? I think slower gravitons would explain the continual expansion of our universe.
And I think faster gluons would increase internet speed... of course if this were true, we have a huge technological barrier to knock down...
But I think it is important to think "outside the box". Right or wrong, we need to try... right?