Hello Houston
"Hello Houston, we have a problem".
"We copy you, Apollo 55. What SEEMS to be the problem"?
"It's the arithmetic. Everything looks so different from up here. As Charles Douglas Wehner pointed out, at http://wehner.org/agrav , our speed is added to that of anything that is coming towards us, or orbitting towards us. It is taken away from the speed of anything moving or orbitting in the same direction as us".
"We copy you, Apollo 55. That's no problem. If A plus B equals C, then C minus A is B. If E is twice F, then F is half E. Just reverse all equations, and imagine you are in Houston".
"We copy you, Houston - but the linear relativity of Ernst Mach does not work at these speeds and distances. We have plenty of food, oxygen and fuel. However, we find that the "Mighty Child" anomaly Wehner described in "Spin-Orbit Duality" applies to us (see http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=12988 )".
"We copy you, Apollo 55 - please explain the problem".
"A child has all the energy it needs to spin a top, but would need to be almighty to put the universe into orbit around that top - so spin-orbit duality breaks down. Einstein discovered that he needed to distort time or space, or something - just to make his equations balance. We are forced into non-linear (Einsteinian) Relativity, and cannot make the equations balance. Either we have more than enough energy to get home, or vastly too little. Nor, from up here, can we match the data you have sent us".
"We copy you, Apollo 55. Our computers use the latest AMD 64-bit 3 gigacycle chips. These are accurate to one part in sixteen million-million-million. All the supercomputers of the world have been linked up by Internet, and millions of volunteers are donating spare cycles on their machine to help. The computing capacity we have is mind-blowing. We know at all times where you are to within a millionth of an inch. If you get into any trouble, just get in touch and we will talk you home".
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"Hello Apollo 55, do you copy"?
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"Hello Apollo 55, do you copy"?
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"Hello Apollo 55, do you copy"?
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About the Author
Charles Douglas Wehner was born on the Isle of Man, and spent his life as a technical author, design engineer and inventor.