Nostromo Speed

wmmvrrvrrmm.TakeThisOut@yahoo.com wrote:
Going by that
> idea, they would have been travelling faster than light, in the movie,
> but on the other hand, the journey was not so short that they wouldn't
> need cryogenic suspension.

I seem to recall somebody on here crunching the numbers on this a while
back, and the bottom line was, as I recall....take your pick. :) ie,
one set of assumptions would require light-speed, another wouldn't.

I tend to go with sublight because a: we don't _see_ anything hinting
at FTL, and b:, I think the technology to move an enormous mass like
the refinery would have tended to have been a bigger player in the
story.

On the third hand, it's arguable that the Nostromo is basically a
tugboat, and a real-life tugboat has a ridiculous power/weight ratio -
no reason not to think that this is true of Nostromo and the existence
of a 'tugboat' doesn't really mean much except you move big heavy
things. FTL or otherwise.
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Adam Cameron wrote:

> To reverse that... if you did see this thing that would hint at FTL, what
> would it be?

LOL, nice trap. :) But, I never said that lack of a hint was _proof_ of
anything, it was just a point in my view. There's no real _need_ to
show anything because it's never used, so...we have to make of that
what we will. (How's that for dodging a petard? Hehehe.)

Also, as delightfully 'crunchy' (in the sense of 'hard' sf) as the sets
and such are, Alien at its heart isn't sf, it's horror, so trying to
shoe-horn too much 'real' science into it is probably a futile task.
What's the worst that can happen? Suppose we prove both that the ship
_had_ to be capable of FTL, and was also provably unable to do so.
Ooops. Doesn't really effect the story any, in my view.

But none of that makes any of this less interesting - do go on, ya'll.
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>> idea, they would have been travelling faster than light, in the movie,

If there are two points on a map which are xLY apart, and one wants to
travel between those points along a straight line between them, and take
less than x years to do it (forgetting relativity for the sake of this
example), then - yes - one would need to travel faster than light. But if
you fold the map so that - in that third dimension that the map surface
does not reside in - the distance is very short, one does not need to
travel so fast at all. One just has to take a route that is not limited to
the dimensions represented on the map.

Sam Neill demonstrated this visually in Event Horizon.

Of course it's all theoretical, but currently seems a more likely
possibility than travelling FTL.

Do I recall a mention of hyperspace in Alien?


> I tend to go with sublight because a: we don't _see_ anything hinting
> at FTL,

To reverse that... if you did see this thing that would hint at FTL, what
would it be?

--
Adam
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Robert wrote:
> wmmvrrvrrmm RemoveThis @yahoo.com wrote:

>
> I seem to recall somebody on here crunching the numbers on this a while
> back, and the bottom line was, as I recall....take your pick. :) ie,
> one set of assumptions would require light-speed, another wouldn't.
>
> I tend to go with sublight because a: we don't _see_ anything hinting
> at FTL, and b:, I think the technology to move an enormous mass like
> the refinery would have tended to have been a bigger player in the
> story.
>
> On the third hand, it's arguable that the Nostromo is basically a
> tugboat, and a real-life tugboat has a ridiculous power/weight ratio -
> no reason not to think that this is true of Nostromo and the existence
> of a 'tugboat' doesn't really mean much except you move big heavy
> things. FTL or otherwise.

I don't know anything about this conversation involving number
crunching, but in the film Lambert mentions that the Nostromo is ten
months away from Earth, and if the nearest known star system is Zeta II
Reticuli, it does seem that they'll be travelling faster to Earth than
the light from Zeta II Reticuli is known to travel.
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Robert wrote:

".......... Alien at its heart isn't sf, it's horror,........"

Isn't sf????? GASP!
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Zeta II Reticuli is ~40 light years from Earth.

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

Lambert said it would take ten months to get home (and that was after
already traveling "halfway there" from Thedus).

Ergo, they were traveling faster than light.

Keith
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keith_hazelwood.TakeThisOut@hotmail.com wrote:
> Zeta II Reticuli is ~40 light years from Earth.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeta_Reticuli
>
> Lambert said it would take ten months to get home (and that was after
> already traveling "halfway there" from Thedus).
>
> Ergo, they were traveling faster than light.

Nope, not without proof that the distance can't be covered at
relativistic velocities in 10 months of *ship's time*, which I believe
somebody around here once showed it was. (Obviously Jimmy-lad's story
and Ripley's promise to her daughter just retcons the hell out of all
this...but it's still fun. :) )
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Without FTL, a round trip from Earth to Thedus would take ~160 years
(in realtime).

Adam,

I have a hard time believing you go a day without drinking whether I'm
around or not. ;)

Keith
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Keith! Crikey! Should I use your re-appearance as an excuse to have a
drink?

--
Adam
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> Adam,
> I have a hard time believing you go a day without drinking whether I'm
> around or not. ;)

Sorry, yes. I meant to say aNOTHER drink, obviously.

--
Adam

PS: yes indeed, I was at the pub tonight.
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Pub? Are you still living in Middle Earth? I thought you were moving
to the US.

Keith
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Adam Cameron wrote:
> > Pub? Are you still living in Middle Earth? I thought you were moving
> > to the US.
>
> UK mate, UK. Still: with Tony Blair in power, he's trying to make it
> amount to the same thing.

Did you follow our most recent election?

> (just home from the pub *again*!)

I just got home from Thanksgiving dinner. Had two heaping mugs of Bud
Light.

Envious?

Keith
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> Pub? Are you still living in Middle Earth? I thought you were moving
> to the US.

UK mate, UK. Still: with Tony Blair in power, he's trying to make it
amount to the same thing.

--
Adam

(just home from the pub *again*!)
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