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<   No. 4898   2023-01-11   >

Comic #4898

1 Serron: Actually the momentum thing gives me an idea.
1 Paris: Yeeesss...?
2 Serron: All we really need to do is get to our destination at FTL speed.
3 Serron: By conservation of momentum, we can do that simply by throwing the three-tonne engine out the back of the ship about a hundred times faster than lightspeed.
4 Iki Piki: “Simply” in the sense of “impossible and more stupidly dangerous”?
4 Serron: And more fun!

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It's not at all clear how conservation of momentum works at FTL speeds, since the equations we have to describe momentum fail at speeds greater than light. Specifically, the magnitude of the relativistic momentum p:

p = m0 v / √ (1 - v2/c2

becomes an imaginary number when v > c.

Not that that would ever stop Serron.

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