what exactly is dr who's tardis?

i’m sorry for all my post’s today (all 3 of them 😉 but i haven’t been on here for a while.whilst looking at computer games,i also was reading up on the tardis (dr who was one of my favorite sci fi programs as a yoof). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TARDIS

from my limited (as in almost none) physics/astrophysics understanding,the tardis can go to any point in space time,but it also is a portal of some description (as it’s a lot bigger on the inside than outside). so what the heck is it? apart from being the best space/time craft ever created for a sci fi program 🙂

could such a vehicle theoretically exist also do you think (it would be fantastic if it could).

right i’ll shut up now 😆

Its a phone box

police box

It’s dimensionally transcendental, don’t you know?

Oh, and it’s not a very well thought out bit of physics. Not like the Millennium Falcon, which looks like it could really work.

“It’s like the tardis in here…just really small..”

DrP

Not like the Millennium Falcon, which looks like it could really work

Really? .5 past light speed? What kind of physics are you talking about?

The Tardis as a hyperspace gateway would be reasonable. An Einstein-Rosen bridge perhaps.

Anyway in the show, the tardis itself is a series of rooms in some part of hyperspace, with a moveable door. The tardis doesn’t go anywhere, it’s just the door that can move around in time and space. Or more accurately, the outside of the door move around, the inside is always in the tardis obviously.

What kind of physics are you talking about?

The cool Star Wars Kind.

Have you seen the size of the engine on that thing? It spurts out massive blue light… so in my book of physics that’s much faster than your measly .5 past light speed.

I should add at this point that I am not a physicist.

Camo, .5 past light speed is a quote from the film. She may not look like much but she’s got it where it counts.

Dammit molgrips, your knowledge trumps my ignorance.

* goes to a quiet place and whoosh-whoosh-whooshes with fake lightsabre *

Given that according to its pilot it also “made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs,” and given that a parsec is a unit of distance rather than time, I think we can file anything Han Solo claims about his ship under “Posturing Bollocks.”

I need a comparable.

How long does your ordinary bog standard Kessel Run take, Cougar?

Han is a braggart, okay, but I don’t think he’d lie about something as important as that, not when lives are at stake and Imperial soldiers are all around.

Space magic. Next.

😆

molgrips – Member
The tardis doesn’t go anywhere, it’s just the door that can move around in time and space. Or more accurately, the outside of the door move around, the inside is always in the tardis obviously.

They must get ****ing dizzy in there.

Given that according to its pilot it also “made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs,” and given that a parsec is a unit of distance rather than time, I think we can file anything Han Solo claims about his ship under “Posturing Bollocks.”

I still maintain that whatever the Kessel run is, distance measurement could be part of how results are compared. Maybe you have to get to within a certain distance of some goal in a certain time?

What the Tardis really needs is an infinite improbability drive.

Methinks the Kessel Run is a widely used (in space jockey land) test involving the ship accelerating from stationary to VERY FAST and back down to stationary in the least distance. Top Gear have done this with supercars ( 0 – 100mph – 0). Given that the Falcon made this run in a distance of less than 40 light years it must be pretty nippy off the blocks. Depending on the actual value of VERY FAST of course.

What the Tardis really needs is an infinite improbability drive

Or a Flux Capacitor

There you go, see? Good suggestion tonto.

I still maintain that whatever the Kessel run is, distance measurement could be part of how results are compared. Maybe you have to get to within a certain distance of some goal in a certain time?

Sure. But then, you haven’t “made” the Kessel Run, you’ve come within 12 parsecs of making it. Perhaps it’s some sort of ‘find the optimum route’ challenge? But that seems to be an odd response to “is it fast?”

We could also speculate that in this galaxy (far, far away) the word “parsec” might have a totally different meaning; he might as well have said centons or microts. Or we could break the fourth wall for the most likely explanation, which is that the script-writers are idiots. Personally, I come down in the “Solo is full of it” camp.

How long does your ordinary bog standard Kessel Run take, Cougar?

I ninja edited possibly whilst you were posting this, sorry.

It stands for

Time
And
Relative
Dimensions
In
Space

Methinks the Kessel Run is a widely used (in space jockey land) test involving the ship accelerating from stationary to VERY FAST and back down to stationary in the least distance. Top Gear have done this with supercars ( 0 – 100mph – 0). Given that the Falcon made this run in a distance of less than 40 light years it must be pretty nippy off the blocks. Depending on the actual value of VERY FAST of course.

I like your thinking. But that would be measuring acceleration; not really all that important relatively when you’re weighing up the performance of an escape vehicle. Top speed is what you need there.

I’m thinking maybe the Kessel run would be picking up several given items from different planets and smuggling them to Kessel. Whoever or whatever that is. The Empire would obviously be interested in tax evasion and racketeering and would be clamping down on this, so the Kessel run would necessitate evading their Star Destroyers and the brag would be that you’d covered less distance rather than done it in less time.

The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used in astronomy. It is about 3.26 light-years, which is about 30.9 trillion (3.09×1013) kilometres or about 19.2 trillion (1.92×1013) miles.

So lets say Han was bragging or the speedo on the Falcon is out a big (it is a bit of a wreck, that ship) and he did it in a round 12 parsecs. So that’s 230.4 trillion miles.
Which is a fair old trot really.

The thing is, I know for a fact that at least one of you is in a relationship with an actual woman 🙂

Perhaps it’s some sort of ‘find the optimum route’ challenge? But that seems to be an odd response to “is it fast?”

Well. Distance and time are tightly coupled at speeds approaching light speed, we have no idea what happens at .5 past light speed do we?

But that would be measuring acceleration; not really all that important relatively when you’re weighing up the performance of an escape vehicle. Top speed is what you need there

No no no. The ship makes a “jump” to lightspeed doesn’t it? So it doesn’t accelerate smoothly through it, which is obviously impossible. So acceleration has nothing to do with trans light speed travel.

Amateurs… sigh

I stand corrected, but I was close!

The Kessel Run was an 18-parsec route used by smugglers to move glitterstim spice from Kessel to an area south of the Si’Klaata Cluster without getting caught by the Imperial ships that were guarding the movement of spice from Kessel’s mines.

The idea being the parsecs thing is that to skirt large astronomical bodies you have to be doing quite some speed.

Kessel has ‘The Maw’ “next” to it so getting to Kessel requires expert navigation in order to plot the quickest/shortest route.

EDIT: so my multiple, Page 3, girlfriends told me

…is a unit of distance rather than time,

Whilst it may be appropriate to differentiate the two when using non-relativistic classical mechanics, Han understands that for Millenium Falcon speeds, it’s easier to think in terms of the space-time continuum.

whatever his speedo says it can do, we have to consider that on a ship that old the cable will have stretched and therefore could be reading up to 10% over. So when he said he could do the Kessel run in less than 12 Parsecs instead of the standard 18, I reckon he’d be closer to 13.

Which is still impressive, nonetheless.

ah but the tardis would beat the millenium falcon,as it would instantly reach it’s destination 😉 the millenium falcon is like a fiat 500 in comparison 😆

My wifes got a 500, and it’s surprisingly spacious on the inside compared to it’s external appearance.

that’s ****ed your analogy, hasn’t it?

😆 😳

ah but the tardis would beat the millenium falcon,as it would instantly reach it’s destination

The flaw in that logic is that the Falcon’s destination is considerably more likely to be the one you intended to go to.

From the Wookiepedia (he he) link above,

Han means nothing other than impressing Obi-Wan and Luke with pure boasting. Indeed, even in the final version of the script, the parentheses attached to Han’s line state that he is “obviously lying.”

---

Well. Distance and time are tightly coupled at speeds approaching light speed, we have no idea what happens at .5 past light speed do we?

…

No no no. The ship makes a “jump” to lightspeed doesn’t it? So it doesn’t accelerate smoothly through it, which is obviously impossible. So acceleration has nothing to do with trans light speed travel.

We either know or we don’t, no? You can’t cherry-pick one and hand-wave the other.

I envisage FTL drives to be like a really high-blow turbo. I don’t remember offhand, did anything ever ‘jump’ to light speed from a standing start in the Star Wars universe

whatever his speedo says it can do, we have to consider that on a ship that old the cable will have stretched and therefore could be reading up to 10% over. So when he said he could do the Kessel run in less than 12 Parsecs instead of the standard 18, I reckon he’d be closer to 13.

Tsk. The cable turns, not stretches, don’t you know nuffink?

I think we need to ask ORAC!

Anyone looked at the Strava CR for it?

I envisage FTL drives to be like a really high-blow turbo. I don’t remember offhand, did anything ever ‘jump’ to light speed from a standing start in the Star Wars universe

I believe there was a bit of a bang when R2D2 removed the software block the Empire put in whilst the Falcon was impounded in Cloud City. That was certainly a jump to light speed.

What the Tardis really needs is an infinite improbability drive

Or a Flux Capacitor

Or a warp drive if it really wants to go.
Whilst it would take the Millenium Falcon 2.8 years to pop over to Proxima Centauri for tea and biscuits, at a leisurely Warp 3 the Enterprise would be there and back in under 3 months, with plenty of time for Capt Kirk to play hanky panky with some exotic alien or another.

You all need to get out in the fresh air right now.