Moving The Universe

[:]

In "A Clone of My Own", Farnsworth's clone states that the Planet Express ship doesn't actually move, and that the dark matter engines move the Universe around it.

Um, yeah..

[#1 :]

That's not so hard to comprehend. What's your problem with it?

[#2 :]

The Futurama writers enjoy playing with the laws of their universe. With a logical leap such as this, it doesn't have to be consistent with our own universe, only that it makes sense it it's own way and has some sort of twisted justification.

Nothing is impossible if you can imagine it! Don't you learn anything from TV?

[#3 :]

I found a problem that dodged this rule.  When Bender was launched from the Planet Express ship in "Godfellas," Leela said that they were at full speed when Bender was launched, so they could never catch him.  If the ship moves the universe around it, why can't they just move the spot in the universe where Bender is to them?  Or did they just drop the idea of how the engine works? 

[#4 :]

They can only move the universe so fast... (99% light speed if I remember correctly)  Anyways, as far as I see it, it is only really a perspective thing. Whether the universe is stationary and the ship is moving, or the ship is stationary and the universe is moving is just how you look at it.  It was likely just easier for Cubert to visualize it the way he said.

[#5 :]

Exactly, remember that movement, like many "constants" of this universe, are actually a product of perspective. And maybe it's not exactly like moving the universe, it's more like creating a dimension destabilizer.

[#6 :]

Two points:

Ranadok is right, in a relativistic universe, movement is purely a mater of perspective.  On earth, the sun moves around you, on the sun, the earth moves.  The effects are the same as far as observations go.

Second, the Star Trek "Warp Drive" does just that, supposedly, it warps space around the ship.  So it isn't that strange of idea. 

[#7 :]

Warp drive creates a "warp field" around the ship where the normal rules of physics are different, and thus faster than light speeds are possible. It's kind of like sound through water, the deeper you get, the faster sound can travel.

Or something.

[#8 :]

"Nothing's a complete load, not if you can imagine it."

Since the idea came to him in a dream, that makes perfect sense. 

[#9 :]

 

Originally posted by Lionel Hutz Esq:
Second, the Star Trek "Warp Drive" does just that, supposedly, it warps space around the ship.  So it isn't that strange of idea. 

Legend has it that while Stephen Hawking was shooting his guest appearence in "Descent I", he was given the grand tour of the show. While passing through the engine room set, he paused looked at the warp core and said "You know, I'm working on that."

Note: sometimes legends are based on hard facts.   

So, yeah, warp speed have some basis in modern science, but exactly where and how it work have never been clearly stated.

[#10 :]

I think I saw an article on a magazine about how most deep space could be composed of dark matter, since the computer simulations showed that sometimes there wasn't enough grav force to hold solar sistems and the such in place. Maybe it's not so much as the ship "moves" the space sorrounding it, it's more like it controls gravity (which makes sense if you consider that dark matter is very dense and has lots of gravitational pull).

[#11 :]

Wizards. Lots of them.

[#12 :]

The ship doesnt move a portion of space, it moves ALL of it, thats why they cant catch Bender like that
although, that raises the question of... why cant they move all of space (including bender) towards them?

[#13 :]

They can only move it toward them at a certain rate, which still wouldn't have been enough to catch up to Bender, who was moving away at a greater rate.

[#14 :]

To put it mathmatically:

C=Speed of light.

The good ship Planet Express moves (or, technically, moves the Universe) at some speed smaller than this, X.  X is always smaller than C.

Bender is moving faster than X, but still slower than C.  This is Y

C>Y>X.  X can never catch Y.  No mater what X is, Y is bigger, but smaller than X.

Hope this bored most of you.

[#15 :]

 

Originally posted by Luis:
Exactly, remember that movement, like many "constants" of this universe, are actually a product of perspective. And maybe it's not exactly like moving the universe, it's more like creating a dimension destabilizer.

Also, those Guild Navigators in DUNE... travelling without moving. 

[#16 :]

I do believe I just shat my pants.

[#17 :]

 

Originally posted by Lionel Hutz Esq:
To put it mathmatically:

C=Speed of light.

The good ship Planet Express moves (or, technically, moves the Universe) at some speed smaller than this, X.  X is always smaller than C.

Bender is moving faster than X, but still slower than C.  This is Y

C>Y>X.  X can never catch Y.  No mater what X is, Y is bigger, but smaller than X.

Hope this bored most of you.

You're the guy who sits at the end of bars boring everyone with "little known facts", aren't you?

[#18 :]

That explanation had nothing to do with little known facts, he merely gave all those numbers variable values, and compared them in an inequality...

I seem remember reading something in Discover magazine on new means of propulsion and coming across a theory about bending space so to speak...
You would bend the space in front of you so that it is shorter and then the space behind you would expand sort of making the distance shorter....

[#19 :]

Calm down winna, I was making a joke.  Lionel Hutz Esq.  appreciated it, didn't you Lionel?

Didn't you?

Lionel? 

*gunshot*

[#20 :]

Variables enrage me!  Hulk STOMP! 

[#21 :]

 Well, it is a little know fact that the first people to make fun of people who bored people with little known facts are Pygmies of the Upper Congo..., Interesting story that if You represent the proportion of Pygmies who bore people by B, and the rest of the tribe by P, you can..,

Oh sorry, you were saying?