Space folding
In science fiction media, space folding is a method of faster-than-light whereby the space "folds" so that the start and end points of the trajectory are in the same location, resulting in instantaneous travel. In real physics, the concept is often synonymous with wormholes, since the existence of wormholes presupposes a folded space-time.[1]
Examples[edit]
In the film Event Horizon this is illustrated by a folded sheet of paper, which is pierced with a pencil. The paper should represent space-time and the pencil the flight vector of the fictional spaceship.
In the Dune franchise created by Frank Herbert, space folding is depicted as instantaneous interstellar travel effected by mutated Guild Navigators under the influence of the drug melange. Kevin R. Grazier analyzes the concepts of folding space and faster-than-light travel in the essay "Cosmic Origami" in The Science of Dune (2008).[2]
In A Wrinkle in Time (1962) by Madeleine L'Engle, "tesseracts" allow for travel through space and time,[3][4][5] explained as follows:
Mrs Who took a portion of her white robe in her hands and held it tight. "You see," Mrs. Whatsit said, "if a very small insect were to move from the section of skirt in Mrs Who's right hand to that in her left, it would be quite a long walk for him if he had to walk straight across." Swiftly Mrs Who brought her hands, still holding her skirt, together. "Now, you see," Mrs Whatsit said, "he would be here, without that long trip. That is how we travel."[6]
In the Star Trek universe, known for its warp drive technology, folding space is depicted as an alternate, instantaneous form of travel. In The High Ground, terrorists on the planet Rutia IV used a space folding teleporter called an inverter.[7] The USS Voyager came in touch with this technology several times on their way home. In the episode Prime Factors the crew tried to buy a spatial trajector from the Sikarians. This wraps an object in a kind of subspace bubble, and teleports it to another location using spatial folding with a maximum range of 40,000 light-years.[8] In the series Star Trek: Picard it is said that the Borg have assimilated this technology and built it into every cube as an emergency transport for the Borg queen. Three years later, in the episode Vis à Vis, Voyager discovered a stranded spaceship with a coaxial warp drive. This also used spatial folding for locomotion. But the system was very unstable and if there is a fault in the drive it could cause a tear in the space-time continuum.[9]
The concept of "space fold" used in the Japanese Macross franchise is actually hyperspace travel, which is carried out by first swapping the location of the spacecraft with Super Dimension space or subspace ("fold in"), and then swapping the Super Dimension space with the space at the destination ("fold out").[citation needed]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ article about wormholes on space.com
- ↑ Grazier, Kevin R. (2008). "Cosmic Origami". In Grazier, Kevin R. The Science of Dune. pp. 177–206. ISBN 978-1-933771-28-1. Search this book on
- ↑ Dirda, Michael (February 27, 2018). "Perspective | 'A Wrinkle in Time': Let's hope the movie is better than the book". Washington Post. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
Once Charles Wallace, Meg and their friend Calvin O’Keefe are transported to other planets by using tesseracts — wrinkles in the space-time continuum — the novel starts to go off in several directions at once.
- ↑ Petersen, Carolyn Collins (2013). Astronomy 101: From the Sun and Moon to Wormholes and Warp Drive, Key Theories, Discoveries, and Facts about the Universe. New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, New Delhi: Simon and Schuster. p. 155. ISBN 9781440563591. Search this book on
- ↑ Gaughan, Richard (2019). Wormholes Explained. New York: Enslow Publishing, LLC. pp. 10–12. ISBN 9780766099654. Search this book on
- ↑ A Wrinkle in Time, Chapter 5: "The Tesseract"
- ↑ Okuda, Michael & Denise. Star Trek Encyclopedia. p. 375. Search this book on
- ↑ Okuda, Michael & Denise. Star Trek Encyclopedia. p. 410. Search this book on
- ↑ Okuda, Michael & Denise. Star Trek Encyclopedia. p. 149. Search this book on
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