Will it be Possible to Wave Travel?

After watching the World Cup last night and fretting about solar storms knocking out the broadcast sattellite, my mind thought about possible back up means if a satellite went down.
I visualised the Tele communication cables under the sea , and thus my beer addled mind reflected on the waves .
Signal waves that is , the type that travel through the air through space and down wires.
They apparently travel quite fast near the speed of light?
A satellite signal takes half a second to travel 36,000km?
Would it be possible to somehow physically ride aboard a wave and travel with it?

I have read these waves are a form of invisible light waves?
But if they were amplified mega times would there be some form of means to attatch onesself or a spaceship to the wave?
I dont know if my musings are original they probably aren't, but the idea sort of makes sense to me.
Space travel Earth travel at incredible speeds using wave technology.
I would imagine the travel would take place in a tunnel on Earth?
Iam sorry to the space and scientific learned my thoughts may appear primitive, but its the first time the thought occurred to me, and I just wanted to hear if others think this could be possible?
Also would I be right in thinking when you look at a star in the sky, you are just looking at the light image if so why doesnt the star appear right in front of our eyes?
If light didnt diminish with distance would we see the farthest star as big as the sky?
Anyonethat can enlighten?

If it were possible, a human would still have to be able to survive the g force or whatever. How fast is it possible for a human to go and survive? I don't know, but astronauts are trained to withstand certain forces without blacking out, but even they will have limits. So if it were possible to travel in any alternative way, it would still have to be feasible to be able to actually withstand the force of it. Now, if the cargo was not human or alive, perhaps it could be used to ship goods at fast speed. But I don't even know if that would work. I mean, what would g force do to a squishy vegetable? Maybe we could ship solid heavy objects that were not fragile, like furniture or building supplies or something.

Originally posted by Dr Expired
Signal waves that is , the type that travel through the air through space and down wires.
They apparently travel quite fast near the speed of light?

In space, radio waves (I assume that's what you're talking about) travel at about 300,000 km/sec. In air, slightly slower, over cables, often quite noticeably slower, it depends on the cable design.

A satellite signal takes half a second to travel 36,000km?

More like an eighth of a second, off the top of my head. Of course, it's possible there's some latency in the satellite, I'd expect there to be.

Would it be possible to somehow physically ride aboard a wave and travel with it?

No.

I have read these waves are a form of invisible light waves?
But if they were amplified mega times would there be some form of means to attatch onesself or a spaceship to the wave?

Well, light and radio are both EM waves, what we call visible light has a higher frequency than what we lump together as radio. But it's the same thing.

At any rate, what a radiating EM wave is, is an electric field and a magnetic field oscillating at right angles to each other. There's nothing to attach TO. At any rate, matter (you) can't travel at or beyond the speed of light in an unmodified vacuum, because you have mass. Light has no rest mass and therefore travels at the speed of light in whatever medium it's in - if you're in vacuum, it's as fast as it gets. (note that there are some caveats I'll leave out for clarity)

Also would I be right in thinking when you look at a star in the sky, you are just looking at the light image if so why doesnt the star appear right in front of our eyes?
If light didnt diminish with distance would we see the farthest star as big as the sky?
Anyonethat can enlighten?

Not sure exactly what you're asking here. Things that are distant become apparently smaller because of geometry. Eventually it's effectively a point source, like a star.

The intensity of light DOES diminish according to the square of the distance. This is called the inverse-square law.

reply to post by jessieg

If it were possible, a human would still have to be able to survive the g force or whatever


Yes that is an issue, I remember on Star TRek , they molecularly dissolved ? whilst travelling? and then reassembled?
Its strange that twins sometimes send out signals to the other half, continents apart even.
Perhaps there is a backdoor to wave travel?

reply to post by jessieg

Not sure exactly what you're asking here. Things that are distant become apparently smaller because of geometry. Eventually it's effectively a point source, like a star. The intensity of light DOES diminish according to the square of the distance. This is called the inverse-square law.

Thanks for your answers , I had never heard of the inverse square law so thanks , does this law work in space?
Why do near stars look the same size as far stars?
The sun is about the size of a soccer ball in the sky and it is close, a star light years away is abot the size of a pea in comparison?
Shouldnt either the sun be bigger or the star invisible?
I believe there is some undiscovered method wherby we will one day hitch a ride somehow on waves, a hologram could , so perhaps one day when we are minds with Holographic bodies we perhaps could manage it.





[edit on 11-6-2010 by Dr Expired]

[edit on 11-6-2010 by Dr Expired]

Even if it were possible to hitch a ride with a wave, there is simply not enough energy in a wave to accelerate something with mass.

And then, if the wave was amplified enough that there was enough energy, it would take a lot more energy than it would if the craft/person was self-propelled.

Originally posted by Dr Expired

Thanks for your answers , I had never heard of the inverse square law so thanks , does this law work in space?

It works everywhere.

Why do near stars look the same size as far stars?
The sun is about the size of a soccer ball in the sky and it is close, a star light years away is abot the size of a pea in comparison?
Shouldnt either the sun be bigger or the star invisible?

No, at some point a distant light source becomes a point source to your eye.

Consider. The Sun is about 98 million miles away, and actually has a visible disk. The nearest star to us is a binary star 25.8 million million miles away, and the larger star in the pair is just a little larger than our Sun, in terms of radius. So while the Sun shows a small disk at 98 million miles, the next nearest star is something like 260,000 times as far away. So it shrinks to about the smallest dot your eye can resolve, and then it's just brighter or dimmer based on intensity and distance. Brighter stars look a little bigger because they have enough light to diffuse a bit in your eye's optics, they're not really subtending enough of an angle to BE bigger, perceptually.

Solar system planets look like stars if you don't know what you're looking at, you may have seen one of them and thought it was a large star, several are large and close enough to look bigger than a point source, which is generally how I spot them to begin with, after that if you know what color they appear to be and which should be visible you can astound your family by identifying them.

I believe there is some undiscovered method wherby we will one day hitch a ride somehow on waves, a hologram could , so perhaps one day when we are minds with Holographic bodies we perhaps could manage it.

Oooookay. An actual hologram is something quite quite different from what you see portrayed on Star Trek and Star Wars, which depict what we in the science biz like to call "fantasy".

Firstly I have to be a good troll and get my joke out there:
I used to wave travel all the time, but now I'm older, fatter, and my wetsuit don't fit anymore...but I still got my surfboards!

Secondly
Japan is all over it, here's a thread to prove it

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Using sunlight to push their spacecraft...its a technology tester, but I think this is what your are refering to right?

reply to post by Xcouncil=wisdom

No but I still find it interesting and have been on the BBc site reading up since the thread was posted on the sail in space..
I am just intrigued how something that is measurable and in essence physical? can travel so fast and is harnessed in so many ways yet we can only travel so slow.
The photons push the Japanese sail , but they dont carry the sail at their speed.
That would be more what Iam getting at, hitching a wave at or near the speed of light and proceeding.
Surfing the waves may have a different meaning in the future?

reply to post by Bedlam


Thanks for the time spent replying, we are not quite on the same wavelength but cheers anyway