Thread: Wormholes

It has been said on the books, net, class discussions that wormholes are not stable
my question here is that how do we even rip the fabric of space and time in the first place? and how does anti-matter come in and stabilize it?

Sorry to be blunt, but wormholes do not exist.

Originally Posted by Stephan17

It has been said on the books, net, class discussions that wormholes are not stable
my question here is that how do we even rip the fabric of space and time in the first place? and how does anti-matter come in and stabilize it?

Wormholes are a possible solution to the equations of general relativity. As I recall it is not antimatter that is necessary to stabilize a wormhole, but rather an exotic form of energy, negative energy that is needed, and in large quantities.

Nothing get "ripped" and there is no "fabric" to be ripped in any case. That is simply some writer's means of dealing with mathematics that he doesn't understand.

Wormholes are pretty speciulative stuff. It it not at all clear that they actually exist. They are popular in science fiction because they allow apparent violation of basic physics and help the plot along.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhole

The best plots always involve warp drive, not worm holes.

Originally Posted by dedo

The best plots always involve warp drive, not worm holes.

That's actually a good observation.

Originally Posted by salsaonline

Originally Posted by dedo

The best plots always involve warp drive, not worm holes.

That's actually a good observation.

The conclusion is that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was inferior to Star Trek: The Next Generation ?

Does that follow? In that case, it's a pretty good verification of the hypothesis.

I was thinking more along the lines of "Star Wars" vs "Contact".

Edit: I guess in both stories though, the "alien" ends up being the main character's father. But somehow it was less corny in Star Wars.

Star wars was SO much more interesting than contact, it's not even funny.

Originally Posted by DrRocket

Originally Posted by salsaonline

Originally Posted by dedo

The best plots always involve warp drive, not worm holes.

That's actually a good observation.

The conclusion is that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was inferior to Star Trek: The Next Generation ?

I could never get into Deep Space Nine, or even the Star Gate series on the Sci Fi channel.

Part of it might be that the characters are not "animated". If the characters know that the technology won't work, maybe they don't act as well.

(Oops, I may be off to the trash section.)

I highly doubt the actors give a crap whether the science makes sense or not.

Originally Posted by salsaonline

I highly doubt the actors give a crap whether the science makes sense or not.

It was just a lame attempt at humor.

It's interesting to try and imagine what a wormhole would look like. I can say that DS9 definitely got that part wrong. SG probably did too, but I'm wondering more about the large, 3D wormholes that you might have a slim chance of actually finding rather than the 2D things from the SG universe. (Correct me if I'm wrong about the 3D nature of the wormhole solutions to GR.)

The only good way I know of to find out is with some specialized ray-tracing software.

The only wormholes I am aware of are on each end of a worm.

Oh yeah. I forgot that I'd actually come across such an animation before: http://runevision.com/3d/anims/wormhole_portal.mpg