The SCIENCE! Behind Mass Effect Technology

Buy cheap steam keys & support our shows simultaneously | www.g2a.com/r/...
Playlist | • The SCIENCE!
Facebook | / shoddycast
Twitter | / shoddycast
Patreon | / shoddycast
Subscribe | goo.gl/gAUfC1
Disclaimer: All gameplay and other media assets are used under Fair Use copyright law for educational purposes.

[@mothersbasement]

I actually wrote Drew Karpyshyn an email about this YEARS ago after reading one of the mass effect novels. He wrote back. The solution left a lot to be desired, and this video FINALLY explained why. Thank you.

[@grandpeach6022]

Mother's Basement Boi

[@teeno91]

Drew Karpyshyn’s the man.

[@themidgen4504]

His Star Wars books are good

[@powdereyes2210]

this is the last place I expected you to comment but at the same time I'm not apart of your everyday life I don't know which channels you like so I shouldn't judge

[@submersivefenboy]

*types "no god damn sense" in four keyboard clicks

[@not-that-guy7857]

Macros...for words.

[@submersivefenboy]

oh my god...

[@sergentti]

Maybe he has some sort of auto complete like on the PlayStation where he can select words he types the most.

[@lorddelrenarthwipeiii1546]

+sergentti ... that was very naive and adorable of you. yes. exactly like ... playstation... never change you precious cinnamon bun.

[@JohnSmith-xb1rm]

He has it hot keyed

[@chrisedwards9543]

The Mass Relays don't accelerate anything past the speed of light, they (And I'm taking this from the lore of the franchise) open up a corridor of mass-less space which supposedly allows a ship to instantly move from one relay to another. For proof, read Mass Effect: Revelation

[@SianaGearz]

+Chris Edwards So how... does space... as in space per se, not whatever obstacles or particles might be there... have a mass again?

[@chrisedwards9543]

Siana Gearz Because reasons (According to the developers)

[@Xanthosis012]

+Chris Edwards wormholes, no?

[@DestructorN7]

Reapers built the mass relays and they are incredibly intelligent. So it would make sense that they would have eliminated all obstacles between a relay and its target

[@MisterSquid1]

Le GentleMan ni its an allcuibierre warp drive it warps space stime

[@wargwargasm3714]

I believe that FTL can work. You just need Garrus for calibrations.

[@Zaffr3]

+Iron Fist's Captain Tarcitus *claps*

[@benskji]

your belief doesn't matter, it needs to be proven, this is SCIENCE!

[@thorodinson292]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@wastelandman198]

That's a really cool swastica man

[@sithis3838]

So you are a superswastica?

[@MichaelTotin]

The speed of light is a constant in normal space. It is a local frame constant, not a universal constant. See: Special Relativity, dark energy, exotic energy, exotic matter, singularities, etc.. Separating a ship from normal space with artificial gravity, negative energy, any kind of exotic energy bubble, warp field, etc. will separate the physics of the ship inside the bubble relative to the physics of normal space(everywhere else). Here's a pitch. The mass relays are interconnected artificial worm holes that exist as a single hole punched trough a multi-layered folding of time-space(we could use quantum entangled singularities to hypothesize this). To travel from one layer to another your ship has to pass through an infinite compression of space-time(the singularity). To do this the relay envelopes you in a field of negative energy, turning your ship into a giant tachyon, that will only last long enough to get you to the relay of your choosing. Since you are not accelerating or even traveling at any speed, as far as normal space is concerned, there is no time dilation. p.s. Negative energy is energy, and like any energy it will transform and fall to entropy. It is not "anti-matter" that will explode when it comes in contact with matter or positive energy.

[@emoteen011]

+Michael Totin my brain hurts

[@polkanietzsche5016]

Do you know that dark energy, exotic energy, exotic matter, singularities, are just mathematical theories and have not been scientifically proved right?

[@higueraft571]

@@polkanietzsche5016 Widely accepted, heavily researched, and, for the moment most logical theories, much like many of the laws you were taught. There are very little truly 100% "Scientifically Proven" science/theories around, as no matter how certain you are that, say, gravity or light works like X, it could take one person proving that it does Y too/instead to knock down the total understanding. In regards to Dark Energy, it's by far one of the more.... tricky ones. As while it WOULD explain our observations of a universe rapidly expanding faster and faster, and even support theories of negative/anti-gravity of sorts, it would at the EXACT same time violate the First Law of Thermodynamics unless there was something to draw from, which may support the multiverse theory as well. And so on... Exotic Matter varies, on some ends, it's firmly within the possibility of our current understanding and even expected. Some even well known such as Supercritical Fluids. Degenerate Matter is Theorized, but unless we can manufacture it or *somehow* extract a sample from a White or Black Dwarf (does not exist yet), it cannot be "proven". Neutron stars as well are theorized to produce some interesting properties as well due to just how extreme the pressure is, but again, gravity would deny us long before we could dig into something barely under the density needed to create a black hole.

[@christopherhall5361]

so...you're telling me a video game isn't real? omfg i thought it was a documentary of the future

[@KadeSmash]

+Christopher Hall Ditto'd

[@stayniftyGuyFaceMannPersonDude]

+Christopher Hall No he's telling you that the game is pretending to be based on real science when it isn't, that's all.

[@KadeSmash]

Ｓｔａｙｎｉｆｔｙ >> Of course it's pretending to be based on real science... It's a sci-fi game.. That's kind of obvious.

[@levib0057]

+Kade Smash The issue is that they're PRETENDING to be based off of real science. Science fiction is actually based off of real science. If it's pretending to be based off of real science, it's science fantasy.

[@roguedogx]

that was a surprisingly well done breakdown of something that is extremely complicated.

[@SokarEntertainment]

I'd love to know where you get the conclusion, that going faster then "c", will make you travel backwards in time. In fact I'd love to know where anyone, would get anything about going passed the speed of light, considering just how badly it would break everything we know about anything. Now as for Element Zero. You are gravely mistaken here Austin. Using an Alcubierre drive, you would indeed negate time dilation, at least comparatively to the reference frame you left from, as your velocity doesn't change in space. So using element zero to produce a warp bobble would theoretically allow you to TRAVEL faster than speed of light, without MOVING faster than the speed of light. Even the problems of relativistic speeds wouldn't be a problem, because the conventional speed adjustment, while of course requiring conventional thrust, wouldn't require much if the mass effect field changed the mass of the ship to barely anything, as you yourself touched on. Also with what the mass effect fields are suppose to do, you could even negate inertia. Ofc all 3 of these systems would be completely different in function, but honestly Bioware did a very solid job with the "science fiction". With what element zero is said to be able to do (which is completely impossible), there really is no problem with anything they are doing in the game. One thing though. Not all planets or star bases are moving at the same speeds, and no amount of mass effect fields (so far as shown) would negate that. So while the travel might not be a problem, communications and A LOT of other stuff, would be very hard to get around.

[@viermidebutura]

he ignored a minus that why got the bach in time answer

[@shaburanigud]

+Sokar Ahh somebody already wrote it. Thumbs up.

[@killercour]

+Sokar Your effectively arguing real world physics with video game logic

[@ScrawnyMcMassive]

+LandoCowDelicion Have you seen any of the videos on this channel? Also, you're*. Yeah, I'm gonna be 'that guy'.

[@Frankthegb]

+LandoCowDelicion "Durr its a video game its immune to real life logical arguments!" Would you people quit that for fuck's sake? Video games are not immune to logical criticism because "durr video game". Suspension. Of. Disbelief.

[@flyawayeye6956]

Interstellar did speed of light really well taking into account time around the vessel.

[@Wertsir]

You are abusing the word science-fantasy, stop it. Science-fiction not being accurate does not make it Science-Fantasy. Star Wars and Doctor Who are science fantasy, this is not because their physics are inaccurate (though they are, obviously) but due to their story drawing elements from both Science-fiction and Fantasy elements. (Star wars is basically just a straight up heroes journey set in space, and Doctor Who draws on numerous Fantasy and Fairy Tale Tropes). Mass Effect IS Science Fiction, Regardless of the accuracy of their science.

[@92Roar]

You had me wondering for a solid two minutes about what Doctor who stole from the Anime "Fairy tail" before I clicked :)

[@ASpaceOstrich]

+Wertsir Yeah, the Extra Credits episode on the subject had the same problem. Science Fiction has never had to be accurate, hell, by definition it can't be, if it were it would just be modern day fiction. The distinction is entirely in the presentation. Some of the Star Wars EU stuff is Sci-Fi because it's presented differently, likewise, you could easily tell a story in the Mass Effect universe that is straight up Space Fantasy. It all comes down to the presentation, to the point where something like Eragon starts to get really genre bending. While I'd never call Eragon Sci-Fi, it's magic is definitely in the "any sufficiently explained magic is indistinguishable from technology" area.

[@josephpotter5766]

+Wertsir The distinction between 'hard' sci-fi (apparently the only kind this channel accepts as sci-fi) and 'soft' sci-fi (which includes mass effect, along with about ninty percent of the science fiction written in the last fifty years) is pretty simple, but almost always overlooked by people wanting to make a point.

[@josephpotter5766]

+Kenneth Rapp Agreed, even Peter Watts gets stuff wrong in fields other than his own, and he writes stuff that's pretty diamond hard.

[@ShaggyDabbyDank]

+Wertsir No, mass effect is science-fantasy. Its basically the story of jack and the bean stalk except with hundreds of giants.

[@Born_Yashish]

Another plot shield for the FTL travel is that the mass effect relays are Reaper tech, and the secret of how they function is not yet fully cracked. Smaller mass effect generators were successfully created and used for different tech (most prominent one in the game are the guns), but the travel isn't clear yet- except for the fact that both ends of connected relays are required for the FTLT to work (which is plausible explanation that suggests additional factors that come into play in-between the relays).

[@ALegitimateYoutuber]

Woop!! Woop!! That's the sound of the fun police.

[@Joesolo13]

that's pretty much the point of these videos, going into the actual physics abs reasoning behind different games. doesn't need to ruin the fun. just something to think about. like how superman could beat the tar out of goku. that doesn't mean DragonBall is a worse show.

[@Jonny2myren]

Shut up baby, I know it; I'm 98% stuffness.

[@wanderingwriter3958]

Though you would think that the person who designed the relays would have been able to capture the energy since they do have mass effect tech.

[@GeorgeofGondor2]

Reapers built them, so we dont know. Trip from Earth to Citadel could take hours for all we know. Due to all these problems NAsa and new scientists are working on a new Theory about shits travelling through time and not space

[@claykie754]

+GeorgeofGondor2 Gotta love our tax dollars at work, nasa working on a theory about time traveling shits.

[@FurizankFan]

when you spend a few hundred years studying physics but some shit you've never seen before shuts you up in a second

[@Blockinstaller12]

03:52 Actually, c is the speed that things with no mass go *in the vacuum of space*, when traveling through diamond for example, light moves significantly slower(about 40% of c if I remember correctly), that's why it's possible for "light-booms"(Cherenkov radiation) to occour with charged particles.

[@NotechisMusic]

The speed of light never changes, merely the speed of propagation slows as it travels through a material. As light travels through a material, it is absorbed by atoms and then emitted, where it subsequently is absorbed by the next atom. This process slows the rate of propagation, but the speed of light between atoms is still constant

[@jimmyjones2087]

I just calculated that if the Citadel was 20000 light-years from Earth and the Normandy travelled to it from there in five minutes, the Normandy would be travelling at 1.44x10^18 ("1.44 quintillion") miles per hour, or 2147282077.71 times the speed of light.

[@TheKrensada]

If mass effect isn't Sci Fi, then neither is Star trek.

[@Adderoo002]

+TheKrensada Then nothing is...

[@Stayler17]

+TheKrensada Or Star Wars for that matter.

[@lupvirga]

+Stayler17 star wars is science Fantasy and is strictly such.

[@LeapMaster]

+TheKrensada He blames it all on techno-babble, as if Star Trek isn't the fucking king of techno-babble.

[@TheKrensada]

***** yes and they don't explain how they get this effect. somehow dilithium crystals makes it possible. just like element Zero. in any case what I'm trying to say is this video is either full of shit, or the guy in it is splitting hairs, and nit picking to the point of ridiculousness.

[@keyrtan]

The Electric Universe theory posits that the universe is electrical in nature. If the model is accurate then the Mass Relays would simply be portals between each other like lightning between clouds and a lightning rod. Because the universe is full of plasma and electricity your travel time and effects on local space would be near zero.

[@nickreed8336]

It's almost like Mass Effect isn't real. Crazy, right?

[@BattleFlyNate]

+Nick Reed it's almost like he's argumenting it as being science fantasy and not science fiction. Crazy, right?

[@animehbkscm]

+Nick Reed The point is, Bioware tries to make it sound possible with big words and wonky math.

[@ketskhoveli-]

Better to crudely explain something with a mix of reason and bullshit than to simply not make an explanation for it.

[@makara4615]

+animehbkscm Unlike Star Trek. warp be praised xD

[@nickreed8336]

ben reed Hello Ben Reed.

[@Yora21]

When you look at the plot of Mass Effect, it's actually pretty straightforward fantasy with a high-tech space paintjob. You are trying to prevent the opening of a portal that will bring an army of giant immortal cyborg demons into the world who plan to devour all humanoid life. The first villain is basically an undead cyborg-warlock.

[@Queen_of_Coffee]

Note to self, use the Mass Effect plot as the basis for a D&D campaign, change some names, and see how long it takes the party to notice.

[@Zyvo2]

That theory on moving faster arriving in the past only works when you are looking at the light from that point taking time to travel to your destination. As for how the Universe actually works, all points of it exist at the same time, so if you are to fly from earth to the citadel in 5 minutes, you won't arrive 13 years in the past, you'll arrive 13 years before the light that was near earth would reach the citadel, but you'd arrive at the citadel 5 minutes after leaving earth. Time and light are two separate measurements, so sticking light speed in with time dialation makes no sense in itself; time itself dosn't change, only the distance light has traveled does.

[@noblesseoblige319]

"you'll arrive 13 years before the light that was near earth would reach the citadel" Except that distance is MORE than 13 light-years. So how can you move faster than light on top of the light headed towards the citadel also moving faster than light? Also, time dilation doesn't work like that. If it takes you 5 minutes to get somewhere (anywhere, at any distance from you), the time you perceive will be different than the time everything else perceives.

[@Mori-ey8wj]

I still love how they "try" two explain the science behind mass effect it adds up so much to the atmosphere and immersion. For me these "explanations" put the game on my top one of all sci fi universes

[@Lukeywoodsey]

They made it believable, heck they made giant robot space octopuses believable 😂

[@lylithward5568]

+Luke Woods I just view it as they are in a different version of our universe in each these rules are allowed. so I agree.

[@donleonsroszavilla5734]

Three Things that have shown Moving (F.T.L.) 1.) Your wallet/ bank funds when your " Girl Friend " knows there is Money in them. 2.) Earth is about 30, 000 light years from the center of the Galaxy Core, every 5,000 stander Earth years the Earth makes a Full Rotation around the Galaxy Disk . That is a distance of 120,000 light years, within " 5,000 earth years time." Land base Star Maps/ Egypt, Maya, etc. shows " Star Consolations / Zodiac " ( Galaxy Clusters ) that can only be viewed by Space telescopes across of our own galaxy or if our Planet rotated around a Galaxy Disk. --- that is 24 Ly/ Earth year. We don't notice it for the same reason we don't notice the Earth's Rotation. 1492- the world is not flat. 3.) The " known " Universe is 83 billion light years across and Only like 16 billion years old. The Universe expanse 6 billion light years per billion year ? ! Or 6 light years per stander Earth year ? But we all are expected to " Believe " a Man came from a Virgin Birth and Mohammad was the Last Profit. That nothing can move faster than light.

[@Enourmousletters]

I always took that ftl happened because of the E=mc^2 formula Element 0 reduces the m but the energy of the object stays the same, so c is altered to balance the equation in the local space of the Mass effect. Before you say ' That is impossible ' You should have said that about the mass effect, both are impossible, if you accept one, then just accept the other, the 'light effect' is the balancing factor to retain energy

[@noblesseoblige319]

Occam's razor. The only way to accept the "mass effect" is to also accept the "light effect" solution. Therefore, since there's no other way to accept "mass effect", either "light effect" is the true answer or going ftl is impossible- which is the main premise of this video. So it's simpler to disregard both rather than having to only accept both

[@jonfirewater]

you do know that sci fi doesn't need to be actually scientific? It just needs to maintain a internally consistent logic

[@anthonylongoria2638]

That's a bit of a contradiction. Science fiction doesn't need to be accurate but at its core it is based around some form of science. The contradiction comes from saying "...maintain a internally consistent logic", by definition that is pretty much what science reveals to us, the inner workings/rules of our reality (Logic). In the end, the definitions of science and logic are pretty similar making your comment kind of, irrelevant? Misconstrued? I'm not sure how to describe it, you're not really wrong, but not for the reasoning you gave as the reasoning you give proves you wrong lol.

[@juzoli]

No, a good sci-fi doesn’t break physics and creates a new one. A good sci-fi maintains existing proven theories, and plays only with the unknown part. We don’t know what dark matter is for example. So let’s fantasize about it, and imagine it is something responsible for mass, and we can manipulate it. Just like we can manipulate magnetic fields with electricity, we can manipulate gravity field as well. Same with warping the space. So we can just pick one of the unproven hypotheses, and build our scifi on that. In that case, it can be entirely consistent with proven physical theories, and still be a fiction,

[@RomLoneWolf23]

Thanks Austin. This is why we can't have Nice Things.

[@colinbryan234]

I was listening to this video, and I just wanted to comment: it has recently (as in, late 90s and early 2000s) been discovered that the speed of light is actually a small range of speeds rather than a single speed, with different frequencies having slightly different velocities than other frequencies. Also, they've been able to achieve some wonky FTL effects using lasers. If you like, I can refer you to the reports of those experiments...

[@TheMostwanted5]

+Colin Bryan I'd like to see some of these experiments

[@IAmEvilTree]

Sorry Austin but light can change speed, but only slower than what it is in a vacuum. Refractive indexes of mediums affect the speed of light as it passes though them via the equation n = c/v where n is the refractive index, c is speed of light in a vacuum and v is the speed of light in the medium. All mediums, air, water, oil etc have a refractive index greater than 1 (execpt for vacuum where it equals 1) making the velocity of light as it propogates through them less than c, n can never be less than 1 as that would make it go faster than light as it goes through that medium. This was taught to me in my first year of physics degree at uni.

[@Godlessfuture]

+IAmEvilTree Actually, that's macroscopic description. Light is actually traveling at regardless. However, light cannot just travel through a medium in a straight line, so it has to travel extra distance, which yields the appearance of slower light speeds. Not to mention there's the effects of different wavelengths interacting with different materials on a quantum mechanics level, which is what gives rise to the dependence of the refraction index on the wavelength of light. Bottom line, the index of refraction is just a macroscopic approximation of a much more complicated microscopic process. At not point does the speed of light ACTUALLY change.

[@SmokeyMarkitZero]

+IAmEvilTree Well then, you were not taught very well at your university. Light, whenever it is traveling as a photon, travels at speed c. This is true whether the photon is in the vacuum of deep space or in water or air. Light only APPEARS to go slower in air or water because, every time a photon hits an atom, it is absorbed and re-emitted and THAT process takes time. Imagine driving your car down a road. A photon traveling in deep space is like you driving down a perfectly open road, nothing slowing you down so you will travel the speed limit. A photon traveling in water is like you driving down the road with gates every quarter mile; you'll go as fast as is allowed but will have to come to a stop, press the button to open the gate, then you start going as fast as you can again (only to repeat the process in a quarter mile). While you have traveled the same speed at all times you were moving (assume you can instantly accelerate from 0 to whatever your speed is, *kind of* like a photon), getting 5 miles down the road is going to take you longer on the gated road than the clear road. So again, it's not a matter of you (or the photon) going slower while you're moving, its a matter of having to stop periodically during your journey. Functionally, it's easier to think about light as "traveling slower in a medium than in a vacuum," but that is just a bulk-approximation of the behavior of light in matter. An incredibly good approximation with a lot of easy math that makes building telescopes and other lens based equipment easy, but an approximation nonetheless. Like most of physics, the math gets much more complex when you get to smaller and smaller scales.

[@IAmEvilTree]

+SmokeyMarkitZero That explains it, I learnt that formula when doing Optics and the main focus was on lenses, Snell's law and things like that. Less what light is more how it interacts with lenses. You're right, light only appears to slow down in a medium and when brought back into vacuum it returns to what is was.

[@ConnorJaneu]

+SmokeyMarkitZero Speed is Distance/Time yes? Then by definition, doesn't having to stop when hitting atoms, thus increasing time to travel a distance, constitute a change in "speed"? I understand that the change is not gradual, it is abrupt, and nearly insignificant, but it is there nonetheless. In your example, the car had to stop at a gate every quarter mile, before immediately returning to its previous speed. Now, even though it may only be stopping for .000000000000001 seconds, by the end, if it's a mile road, it's taken one car .000000000000004 seconds longer than the other car that his been uninterrupted. Now, my knowledge of physics is limited, I'm a simple high school junior, but I've done enough my own research to form this opinion. If at all possible, could you provide an official source that I can look at? I'm not saying I don't believe you, it's just that I'd be reassured by a official study by someone with a Phd in Physics.

[@SmokeyMarkitZero]

I'm a little unclear as to what you don't understand, so I'm going to maybe repeat some stuff I said in my first comment and expand upon it. What we know as "light" is a photon, a massless particle. Whenever a photon exists as a photon, it is traveling at light speed; no slower or faster. When a photon is in a vacuum it travels uninterrupted making both the true and apparent speed of a photon c (the symbol for light speed, which is about 2.997x10^8 m/s). When the photon is in a medium, it "hits" an atom. When a photon hits an atom one of two things happens: (1) it is scattered, shooting off in a new direction at a lower energy (the energy decrease occurs by the photon changing its wavelength, not its speed the speed remains c) or (2) the photon is absorbed by the atom, causing one of the atom's orbiting electrons to increase in energy (this electron is now in what is called an excited state). Note that when number (2) occurs, the photon ceases to exist, it is absorbed by the atom and falls out of existence. The photon does not have a lower speed or a faster speed or even no speed, because it does not exist anymore. Eventually (by this I mean almost instantaneously, but not quite instantaneously) the excited electron "falls down" to its normal, non-excited state. When this occurs, the energy lost going from the excited to the un-excited state is emitted as a photon. This photon once again whizzes on at speed c. The light itself ALWAYS travels at speed c. As you point out, speed is given by distance over time (s = d/t); so if you look at light traveling through, say, a jug of water vs a vacuum the net effect of all those absorptions and re-emissions (the stops and goes at the gates if we are using the car metaphor) is that the light APPEARS to be raveling slower in the jug as opposed to the vacuum. Keep in mind, though, the light itself is not actually traveling slower, it just takes time for it to absorb and re-emit when it hits an atom. This is exactly why I said "it's easier to think about light as "traveling slower in a medium than in a vacuum," but that is just a bulk-approximation of the behavior of light in matter." If you're still not getting it, think about the jug of water again... Now zoom in. Zoom in so far that all you can see is two single water molecules in the jug. What is in between those water molecules? Answer: A vacuum. Light travels between one water molecule and the other as fast as it travels through the vacuum. It's only when you combine the starts and stops in the "bulk approximation" that you get a "slower light speed" in a medium than in a vacuum. The bulk approximation is an *average* speed, not the true speed. For doing optics work, however, the average speed is what matters so thinking that way is very useful (so long as you know what is really going on!) Hope that helped. I'm not going to go pull sources for you, sorry bud. I have a B.S. in Physics and Applied Math and a second B.S. in Chemistry and Biomedical Science; I have some graduate level training in all four of the fields. You don't have to trust me, but I am fairly well educated in this (and this is a fairly low level topic so I understand it pretty well). If you are interested you can just go to wikipedia and learn about most of this stuff. Look up "electron excitation" and it should talk about the photon excitement, look up compton scattering if you want to read about option (1) I discussed earlier, look up "speed of light" and I'm sure they will have a discussion about its propagation in mediums and say things similar to what I have here.

[@NeilRieck]

Hey, it's a "leap of faith" based upon technology first introduced in the TV program Babylon-5 (that is to say: it is a literary device introduced to tell a story in a shorter amount of time); Star Trek did the same thing with Transporters and Warp Fields.

[@unturned6066]

By that definition, all science-fiction are science-fantasy.

[@SirMattomaton]

+Mia Søgaard Of they are, they have to be. If it was TRUE science-fiction it'd be boring as hell.

[@midnatwilightprincess789]

Their codex entries are a wiki which can be altered. The moderators of sed information may not have ANY background knowledge of time dilation.

[@draegoth]

Doesn't the Higgs-Boson give mass to atoms, so technically the Higgs-Boson particle is Element Zero?

[@sammcneil4631]

+Draegoth no as the Higgs-Boson isn't an element rather a sub atomic particle, like a proton or neutron.

[@sammcneil4631]

I'm not entirely sure how it works. I don't think it exists within them. As I understand it it allows for interactions between particles and exists for very brief amounts of time which is why it was so hard to detect.

[@BoxStudioExecutive]

+Draegoth Element Zero is a special type of neutron material.

[@MrRonan99]

+Samuel McNeil Well, not exactly as you need to take into account that gluons hold particles together (so basically these particles interact with each other)

[@sammcneil4631]

I didn't say hold together, just interact. There are more exchange particles-like the gluon-called bosons and these communicate the weak force where the gluons communicate the strong force. There is also the virtual photo for the electrostatic force and the graviton for gravity, although gravitons haven't been proven yet. Im not sure but I think the Higgs does something similar to these particles.

[@RegisBodnar]

There are media through which the speed of light is slower than 186,000 mph, but never faster. We've even been able to stop or nearly stop photons in a lab. What doesn't slow down, regardless of what you try to do to it, is the speed of causality, which happens to be the speed of light in a vacuum.

[@micflynn1]

Recently scientist have said that they think the speed of light is not constant due to what appears to be differences in the fabric of space, saying that there are parts of space where light may move fast than C an parts where it may slow down below C. So they say light is now a reference to the fastest speed and may not be the fastest speed that can be traveled. Opening up the idea that FTL travel may be real. and then there are Tacion particle believed to move far faster than light, but that another topic. (sorry for bad spelling)

[@kristianhaverasmussen8558]

Dear ShoddyCast "element zero" do eksist But its a particle (higgs) higgs is a particle that give other particles mass so the idea of creating energy of the so called "element zero" make sense

[@shugucchi]

Hmmmmmm... First using the Alcubierre drive, negates time dilation, space-time is moving not the object e.g. like putting a ball on a piece of paper and then moving the paper. Because space-time can move at any speed, like how galaxies are moving away from each other faster than the speed of light (sol) without the galaxies actually moving. The drive works the same way because the object isn't moving there isn't any time dilation at all. 1 Second for you is 1 second for the humans and/or aliens (no discrimination here) outside the effective area.

[@Poctyk]

Actually if you factor in mass effect wiki about Normandy SR-2 it'll look like Normandy actualy using Alcubierre drive to move during cover op missions.

[@shugucchi]

does it?

[@Poctyk]

Actualy yes.masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Normandy_SR-2 Tantalus drive core part says that the oversized Tantalus drive core generates mass concentrations that the Normandy "falls into", allowing it to move without the use of heat-emitting thrusters. If you look at pictures of Alcubierre drive in front of the ship there is an actual deformation of space like from some massive gravity object. It's either this or Normandy SR-2 plays baron munchausen by creating an intense gravitational distortion n front of itself and while falling into said distortion moves distortion so it would still be in front of the ship. Kinda like baron pulled himself out of swamp. Now that i think of it Alcubierre drive does the same.

[@shugucchi]

Ohh right I see now, yeah it's close but the ship is still technically moving. Without the use of space-time manipulation.

[@QrazyQuarian]

Very interesting. :)

[@BroKenFilms3]

I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this before but let me. Sure, there is a time dilation that happens when you travel through space, regardless of your speed, it happens. But Einstein's Theory of Relativity also accounts for this. You see, while technically going faster than the speed of Light will essentially make you travel backwards through time so that you reach your destination before you left your starting point, the act of Deceleration so that you can safely land on your destination gives the universe the time it needs in order to catch up with you. Therefore, while you may have technically traveled to the past, you cannot stay in that time. It's a lot more technical than I'm capable of going into but Relativity does explain it.

[@craiggraham2383]

no matter what the codex tells you, a central theme is that only the reapers know what's really going on with Mass Effect technology. Its like a built in answer to the Kessel Run being measured in parsecs.

[@bernhardbckman934]

6:25 light travels slower when it travels "through" mass or an object. It's only traveling at c when it goes through a perfect vacuum. That's why it bends through glass and water.

[@DamonFyrian]

Aside from the whole "FTL" thing, the majority of Mass Effect's science falls within the boundaries of what is physically possible (yes, some of it pushes the boundaries, but it's still theoretically possible if you are willing to go to extremes to accomplish it).

[@jimmycolleran349]

There would be a way to explain this, for instance, if the mass effect feild increases mass, it could in crease the mass in the field so much that the gravitation of it moves time faster around it, stopping this when you reach the desired time, they also could have used the Alcubierre drive method since it could be explained using negative matter

[@mementomori5580]

All they had to do was changing the "Mass Effect Field" to a "Warp Field" (they might just still call it "Mass Effect Field") that stretches and contracts space around it and thus moves the object within the field (the ship) thorugh space without the ship actually having to move at all. That way it would arrive much faster than light without actually having to fly faster than the speed of light and everything would be fine.

[@Foskitty]

I had a thought. If, somehow, a vessel managed to travel at light speed, wouldn't it need a device already in place at its destination to slow it down so it doesn't crash into something or keep going past its destination? I ask this because the passage of time being akin to teleportation isn't something that just the passengers' minds would experience, but the ship's computers would also experience the same effect. Computers are fast, and any civilization capable of light-speed travel would have incredibly advanced computers, but they still require some amount of time to compute things, so the ship would be unable to process that it's reached its destination, and essentially the vessel would continue to travel at light speed, its passengers and computers effectively in perfect stasis, until it runs into something that slows it down enough for its computers to be able to have any sort of reaction time. So you'd have to put a device at the destination that slows down space vessels, in order to ensure that you would in fact slow down without running into anything that would destroy your ship. You'd be putting a hell of a lot of trust in that device on the other end to be there, and because you'd have no ability to react, you'd have to have a lot of faith that your path is clear and unobstructed, because you'll be unable to avoid any objects that drift into your path. Though, I suppose it's possible (if you've got vessels capable of lightspeed travel) that you could do it in a series of jumps, by having a probe ahead of your ship with a device capable of slowing down your ship. The probe would travel enough under the speed of light to be able to react to dangerous objects, and then you'd have to have it being capable of slowing your ship down enough to send a command to slow down or stop itself. You'd have to do it in jumps because that probe will be traveling slower than your ship, so eventually your ship will catch up, so you'd need the probe to periodically slow down your ship so it can create some more distance. And of course, some of those probes would malfunction, and on occasion we'd have starships that are simply lost to the cosmos because they can no longer slow themselves down enough to realize anything went wrong, and they'd eventually collide with something.

[@BroKenFilms3]

Not necessarily so. For us it would appear that we jumped and arrived all at the same time because our brains aren't capable of processing information that fast. Computers, on the other hand, even by our standards, process information at much higher speeds. Given how advanced technology is in the Mass Effect universe that processing speed is likely to be even higher. So, while for us it would be instant, seemingly, for the shipboard computers there would be enough time for them to process our distance traveled. Not to mention the equations for how long it would take to reach a certain destination from a certain starting point would likely already be worked out, therefore the computer would only have to keep the FTL going for a certain amount of time that it would likely be able to process in this advanced age. The only time when your scenario comes into play is when we're mapping the galaxy for the first time and we don't know exactly where we're going from the get go. Likely, any "FTL" travel through our galaxy won't come until after subspace crews have already mapped out the galaxy and figured out the equations giving our computers the info they'll need in order to get us from point A to point B.

[@Minimeister317]

Damn, it's been a while since I've laughed this hard over a KZbin video xD

[@claybartelmay]

But the whole idea behind mass effect is that the mass relay's are connected to each other and they essentially open a corridor (as said in the ME1 codex entries) to the other mass relay. They use mass effect fields but they also state that this was just a rough idea of how they work and that no civilization has come close to recreating the mass relay's. That means that there's still an unknown variable with the mass relay's. who knows maybe the connection to the other mass relay means that they get shot through time, space, and existence itself to wind up at the other relay

[@Debiano_Banano]

It's well explained though, the Relays create a corridor where light/mass/heat/radiation are insubstantial. So the infinte energy required for FTL acceleration, thermodynamics, the interactions with spacetime and its relativity bound consequences (distortion/dilation/byproduct radiation, etc) don't factor inside the Relays' corridors - since light, gravity or any of the fundamental forces are rly a constant or even present there. You could see as a cheat, like hyperspace in Star Wars, but it does work in context. The Reapers found a way to create a tunnel where the laws of physics as we know them are absent.

[@Dardobul]

easiest way to solve the problem: travel into the past upto a few light minutes or hours away from destination, and then travel the last fraction with a small amount of mass. if they posited that element zero (which makes the mass effect fields ONLY when a current flows) has some ability to induct current in itself when moving faster than light, but at a depreciating rate, in such a way that time taken for the journey from the universe's point of view is equal to the time spent inside the bubble, this would prevent people from time hopping. of course they said none of this, and you would still have the 'space is not a vacuum, what happens to particles you collide with?' problem, but it's a start? I would love to see a video where you patch holes in peoples science!

[@campbellsoup93]

It's a bit strange to call out a game for not following our modern understanding of physics when the whole backstory on said games technology was that the discovery of a new element fundamentally changed humanities understanding of the laws of physics and what is possible. That's literally the whe point.

[@scapelife]

These videos would be much better without the faux over acting and exaggeration

[@larrisAWSOME]

and misrepresentation and lack of understanding of actual theories

[@koloblican11763]

Im glad I let my youtube go to autoplay for like 4hours, because now I found your channel, and its fantastic.

[@QrazyQuarian]

Hey Austin! How's it going? So, I watched your video. Gotta say, it's got a lot of cool science and math in it. I like the work you did. BUT No one really cares that it's not possible. Like you said, they want to deliver a great story, which they did. Which a lot of great stories end up doing. Fudging up what's possible by replacing it with what's convenient. Obviously, anyone with half a mind for high school physics will understand that it's probably impossible to achieve the speeds Mass Effect technology achieves--especially without said time dilation, because eezo is obviously not so magical that it can increase or decrease mass to manipulate the world around it AND prevent time dilation from traveling at FTL speeds. But without some kind of incoherent technobabble (which, as an avid Star Trek fan I am used to and appreciate despite its blatant inaccuracy), there would be no good story. What I love about Mass Effect is that they took the time to write a really good concept for an FTL travel that doesn't conform to the traditional "Warp"/"Hyperspace"/"Wormhole" travel cliches that have been popularized by science fiction/fantasy franchises within the last half-century. I appreciate the time they took to fill the technological void that others in their own respective franchises would rather leave a mystery. Like the Heisenberg Compensator (Excuse me, how does the Heisenberg Compensator work?" "It's working just fine! Thanks for asking!"). Or the PokeBall. Mass Effect has created a world I can dive into. I appreciate the science you dropped, and I learned a bit by it. But complaining to Bioware about their flawed "science" doesn't make it better. And frankly, I would LOVE it if they kept the Mass Effect technology in Andromeda (which we know they will, so let's not kid ourselves here). I don't want to play a game that's scientifically accurate to our universe. Obviously, this universe's physics is different to ours, as well as the age of the universe (assume 1 Reaper was built per cycle and the cycle began at the beginning of the universe and you get an estimated total of around 700 Reapers. Significantly less than in the game, as there are thousands). So please, do yourself a favor, and have a suspension of disbelief. Assume this is a different universe with a different set of physics. Don't think about how other things wouldn't work if mass could realistically be reduced to nothing and without time dilation during FTL travel. Obviously, it doesn't work that way, and if it isn't obvious to someone then they are better off not knowing. Bioware knows this, we know this, and those who don't know this are perfectly happy not knowing. And maybe some of us who do know are perfectly happy not caring. Mass Effect still remains one of my favorite series of all time, along with Star Trek, Dungeons and Dragons, and Metroid. I love it all, and despite my knowledge of chemistry and physics, I frankly don't care that it doesn't match with virtually any of the entertainment I watch, play, and create on my own.

[@batswithsass3754]

then why are you watching it it's what the series is about

[@QrazyQuarian]

Ah, I didn't realize there was a whole channel dedicated to this kind of stuff.

[@RealDiaboy]

To be fair though, I understand the rejection of being so nit picking but Austin regularly points out that he does enjoy playing these games. It just makes for a very interesting learning exercise, and doesn't have to ruin your experience of anything :)

[@QrazyQuarian]

RealDiaboy I do realize that. In fact, I nitpick all the time, enjoy listening to points, and can suspend my disbelief when something unrealistic happens (to a certain degree).

[@kehillkandraak1429]

ignoring the whole gravity pulse thing I see a way to explain the lack of time distortion, the relays and other ftl tech calculates for time dilation so you actually end up there a momen earlier

[@jeleeson]

@6:31 - light does not "ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS" travel at the same speed. Light travels at different speeds in different media (though the speed is always constant within a given medium). Therefore its not a terrible stretch to accept that some futurey space-magic might be able to temporarily increase the value of "c" within a "Mass Effect Field" - it's basically the same concept as Warp Drive in the Star Trek universe(s), using a different MacGuffin as the catalyzing material.

[@Ilovepoopin]

"light always travels at the same speed.".... in a vacuum. Light moves slower through 'thicker' mediums.

[@-Teus-]

8:15 You can't just add a minus to that formula. From there it starts to not make sense.

[@AstralSys.]

Teus tachyonic antitelephone.

[@RVRgeek]

as i recall, the Alcubierre drive kinda sidesteps relativity, and so time dilation doesn't effect a ship traveling using one.

[@jakedragon8753]

Mass effect sort of explains this away too "hand wavy" kinda by telling how Reapers were the ones that gifted each cycle with the tech that got it to where it is, so thats 100s of trillions of years of tech research

[@illicitsyzygy7124]

The answer to time dilation would be not to move ourselves around the universe, but to move the universe around ourselves.

[@UriGerhard]

Imagine if multiple things did that in different directions

[@Barrbossa1111]

But here's the thing. You don't need to always use power to accelerate. Honestly you only need to use power to speed up the acceleration till the acceleration that cannot slow down because you are in space.

[@ImminentDingo]

The moment you stop using energy in space you will stay at the velocity you currently have.

[@trendqiang3921]

Anti- Higgs boson = element 0 ?

[@ErgonomicChair]

+trend qiang That's actually a theory about what Element 0 is.

[@TheEarthCreature]

Your videos often rely on the idea that popular theories are not simply theories. We don't know everything and what we do think we know changes all the time.

[@thefrozenmunk]

"Physics Hacking" is my new favorite phrase.

[@GigAnonymous]

Ah, but that's exactly why NO ONE in the ME universe knows how the mass relay actually work! See, the codex is written inuniverse - and in-universe, we know how to use ezo to travel generate artificial gravity or to travel at near-lightspeed without actually accelerating (basically, you 'charge up' in kinetic energy with a ship with a large mass, then you suddenly 'drop' the mass thanks to the mass drive, and since energy is continuous the excess energy as to go somewhere, and it so happens to be speed and not, say, heat, which would be problem). Since the distances involved during those travels are quite 'small' (far less than a lightyear) time distortion isn't much of a problem. However no one in universe knows how to go beyond that limit, because, as you said, physics do not allow it... And that's why the mass relays are so incredible in-universe. Nobody know how they actually work... Nobody can repair them, or make more of them. There HAS to be a reasonable explanation, but they appear to be like thunder to a bunch of neanderthals: freakin' magic. Those relays create a distortion in spacetime - a tunnel, that can be used to basically hack the speed of light from an outside perceptive. From the inside (i.e. pov of a ship) it's the DISTANCE that was reduced by an insane factor. Ezo may or may not have anything to do with mass relays! It is only used to make the ship go fast relatively to normal space (< c) but as far as mass relays are concerned you could as well be using a Prius, it would make no difference, the distance (or max speed from the outside) would still be affected.

[@paf7008]

When the music speeds up and you know Austin's bout to lose his crap... 😂😂😂

[@AIIEYESONME]

I lol at the very idea this guy thinks he knows the exact workings of a Mass Relay in the game. This is all theoretical physics after all. Most of this, even the theories Austin is using will likely be challenged and changed in the future. You know most of the Scientific community 50 years ago completely dismissed the guy who theorized that there is likely a Black Hole in the center of our Galaxy. Some 50 years later and oops, I guess what we thought we knew was incorrect. The first thing to keep in mind if you want be intelligent is the general problem with using theoretical physics to challenge others is that they can't be put to test and what we know to be true or hypothesize as impossible is constantly changing.

[@UnderCultures]

uh Austin minor correction while you do experience time dilation while using an alcubierre drive, due to the fact that relative to your own little bubble of space time you aren't going faster than light, it isn't really all that bad.

[@IanNuke]

The abachure drive exists (or something like that) shifting space Edit i just noticed that it is mentioned later. Elite dangerous uses it to travel up to 2001 c

[@firebladetenn6633]

Never noticed this in all the times I’ve watched this over the years. I’m...the Alcubierre warp drive isn’t immune to time dilation? Yes...it would be. It moves spacetime, not the ship, meaning that things like the the Lorentz factor don’t affect it at all.

[@jaytranscendencemodder1280]

The question is how relativistic theory applies to transdimensional mathmatics. Considering that time doesn't flow and you are instead traveling through the fourth dimension, percieving that motion as time, the real question is how that theory interacts with the other.

[@MrGacido]

didn't read the comments, so i don't know if someone pointed this out yet. the speed pf light is reduced in different materials, so why can't it be increased, so you don't get this form of time dialation?

[@theJOYSofANALpenetration]

+MrGacido But it's not slowed it's just being pulled around. The photon is still moving at the speed of light it;s just not escaping the forces around it easily.

[@DJenser]

The speed of light WAS accepted as an absolute... until scientists in Scotland slowed the speed of photons. Light is the visible manifestation of processes that occur at the quantum level, where the normal laws of physics don't (some say "can't") always apply. We've only just started to scratch the surface of this level of existence, and the sum of our understanding of quantum physics is theoretical, being extrapolated from the ways we are able to perceive it's effects.

[@christopherhauck4702]

woah just realized after watching this for the 22nd time that YOU experience 12 minutes so the world around you would be WAAY farther in the FUTURE as your time would be SHORTENED by traveling NEAR light speed but with NEGATIVE mass you would experience the same reverse time dilation so in mass effect they literally are ignoring time-dilation completely

[@MatteV2]

Well, the speed of light is relative. Ligh travels at C through a vacuum, but its speed through transparent materials, is in fact less than C.

[@luisalmanza119]

The speed of light never changes. What changes is the amount of objects it is refracted on, thus taking more time to get to its destination.

[@luisalmanza119]

***** I don't think I need to translate XD. I speak Spanish, which isn't that different from portuguese. Anyway, Gravity can also bend light's direction, like if it was refracted, but that doesn't change its overall speed. After all, light would not be wearing the variable "C" if it wasn't a "Constant".

[@bruhe_moment]

This is a common misconception but is actually false. A straight line from one end of a room to another is shorter than the distance between one end of the room, turning around halfway through, then turning around again and going to the other side. Translucent substances act like a bunch of mirrors and so when light travels through them, it's actually bouncing off tons of different little mirrors and then eventually bouncing out the other side. The speed never changes, nor does the distance between point A and point B, but the light is taking a weird zigzag path that's longer than the distance between A and B. luv u though

[@SethAbercromby]

And if you decelerate a light particle to 99.9% of C, the rest of the light will be travelling at the speed of C relative to it. Light is fucking weird.

[@bruhe_moment]

+Seth Abercromby that would be true if light could be decelerated, but it can't.

[@jgerke55]

It is an assumption that the speed of light is a constant. We only have the means to measure the two way speed of light. Not the one way. So the speed of light may be instantaneous.

[@PCIntrovert]

Wouldn't it just be more plausible to assume that they just called it FTL travel but really only go near the speed of light but not past it?

[@luisalmanza119]

That wouldn't make sense because then whenever you jumped to FTL travel in mass effect you'd arrive several thousand years after you left, while in the game it takes minutes to get there and the people aren't as unchanged as what it would be like if thousands of years had passed by.

[@tryhardparadise2240]

Dear Austin I learnt like more than 2 and a half terms of science in about 4 videos of yours

[@shelbyz1988]

You got one thing wrong about how light travels. Light only knows straight lines, it's space that curves, the geodesic. A photon orbiting a black hole in the photon sphere is actually traveling in a straight line, it's space that's warped into a sphere.

[@sim.frischh9781]

I remember reading something about light speed not being always the same. Not sure what exactly that means though. But it DOES make sense that light emerging from a less bright source would be slower than light from a very bright source. I do NOT understand higher physics and just think of the "the bigger the force behind the faster it is" kind of approach.

[@PyroMancer2k]

+Sim. Frischh Brightness has nothing to do with the speed light is traveling. It has to do with home much light is being given off, that is to say how many photons are being released from the object. As for the speed of light not being constant that is actually somewhat true. It is one of those * type things were they put disclaimer. Light speed is constant in a vacuum like space, but when light travels through curtain mediums it can be slowed down. There was an article I read a while back about how scientist has managed to slow down a beam of light to the point where it nearly stopped. They are doing this as a way to try and better understand light and it's properties. But it doesn't really change anything about relativity or the speed of light as talked about in this video other than being slightly inaccurate about nothing being able to effect how fast light is traveling.

[@williamwinqwist822]

+shoddycast, atoms are bound together by photons, meaning that even if you manage to go past the speed of light you would disrupt into protons and neutrons.

[@edwardrecord5305]

+William Winqwist atoms are not bound together by photons? i think you are referring to force carriers, but photons are not the correct force carrier. You are referring to gluons, quarks and the strong force. Strong force is the binding force of atoms, with a gluon bouncing between quarks making it neutral in color force, this 'bouncing' results in the atom being held together in the most simply terms. So no, that would not happen, and photons do not bind atoms. Photons are simply the force carrier for light.

[@edwardrecord5305]

+Edward Record *simple

[@diapason89]

"You and I need to have a fucking talk, BioWare." Gold. XD

[@xMISTERxJ]

you have explained the speed of light to me through this video better than every teacher I've ever had or probably ever will have. thank you, love the videos!

[@GSandSDS]

@Austin: As far as I can remember you could "create" dark energy with Element Zero. Since it is said that dark energy plays a vital role in the expansion of the universe maybe the FTL drive could just expand the space behind the ship - well, if that makes any sense. However this resembles the Alcubierre warp drive a little bit. As for the mass relays: I always thought of them as installations that let the space ships travel through some sort of worm holes.

[@DBZHGWgamer]

Technically, if you reduced the mass of anything to 0, it would immediately, without any applied force, be moving at c. Nothing that has 0 mass can move slower than c.

[@cosmogoblin]

I actually thought the principle of FTL in Mass Effect essentially *was* an Alcubierre drive, and didn't have a problem with it. What I had a problem with was "A positive current [through Eezo] increases mass, a negative current decreases it". WHAT?!?! WTF is a "positive or negative current"? For that matter, what is Element Zero - this ultra-rare element with atomic number zero? Sounds a lot like a bunch of neutrons to me! They could so easily have chosen one of the high-mass elements from a hypothetical "island of stability", element 150 for example, which could only be produced in the most powerful supernovae.

[@Teboski78]

Maybe the mass relays just create so much artificial mass in 2 locations simultaneously to warp the fabric of space so intensely so as to contract the distance between 2 points in space for a fraction of a second. And if your asking how one relay can know when the other one is activating well i guess they have quantum entanglement communication systems. And maybe the FTL drives actually change the vacuum permeability and permittivity in the region surrounding the ship thus altering the value of C.

[@grantsmotherman8450]

"Super-massive neutrinos"? That is an oxymoron in itself! In order for neutrinos to be lethal, you would need to be 1.4 AU away from a supernova, which you would die anyway because you would be in the star's outer layers.

[@Rahalimus]

All this talk about Time Dilation makes me want to watch Gunbuster again

[@aguyuno]

People going "oh well it works in the ME universe"... yes. That's literally his point. Hence "science fantasy". The point of SciFi is it's fiction but could, potentially, exist in our realm. Fantasy, on the other hand, allows you to fill in gaps and be in a diff universe etc etc

[@sycolution]

Someone probably already mentioned it but light has been slowed by scientists recently....almost stopped...then released. I can't remember how, but I think it involved special glass or crystals or something.

[@ThavunIeos]

Very good and kudos on bringing up gravity distortion drives

[@benedictifye]

what if, half the trip you travel into the past, but the other half of the trip you slow down to under the speed of light and then catch up to "now" ;D (you'd have a lot of ships popping in and out of your timeline all over the place -- maybe that's the point of "space lanes" that you see in a lot of sci-fi: "Exercise caution: traveling ships pop in and out of your point in spacetime along this route". Real headache for air traffic controllers.

[@mitchellbrowe201]

Well what if, the mass relay gives the ship a negative mass, which is carried until the ship is new it's destination. The ship's Element Zero core or Mass Effect core (It's been a while since I've played, don't judge me) reverts the mass to zero, so the ship is now at light speed. It then begins to revert to it's normal mass, sewing down as it does. I know this doesn't account for distortion in space time, they would still arrive in the past but there's gotta be some damn way to stop that. I don't know, just a thought. It solves the problem of blowing everything at the arrival point out of the sky at least

[@lordsam808]

Not wanting to be pedantic as this is in the realms of sci fi, but IF the mass effect field can decrease an objects mass below its rest mass, assuming the proportion e=mc^2 still follows, the local speed of light will increase, basically allowing a ship to travel at 4c with the relativistic effects of travelling at a significantly lower speed, from my understanding mass is not becoming negative, if you used that formula with a greater value for c, dt will be much lower

[@tazkol]

you forget the fact that gravity itself warps time therefore by creating artificial gravity they have the ability to cancel out time diliation.

[@MultiGodmode]

sneakily teaching me about physics keep up the good work : D

[@Invctus]

Obviously the mass relays opperate on a different basis. There would always be dust or debris in the path between relays, yet the ships aren't blowing up all the time. Interestingly in the game, when they don't use the Relays, they say that they're traveling at sub-lightspeed. Even though they still have Mass Effect Cores, which are still being used to provide propulsion. Seeing as Mass Relays are Reaper (Leviathan) technology, that no-one but the protheans could duplicate, this is probably an unspoken difference. Another example of this difference is in the first game. You drive a vehicle thru a Relay on a planet and arrive on the Citadel. However, you don't crash through anything on the way (walls, ships, planets, dust). Meaning that the FTL process has to take the vehicle partially out of phase with reality; and if you acknowledge that, then you're in a whole different rant/debate.

[@paschal4437]

By your argument light should not be able to go the speed of light. The reason I say this is because light has been shown to have mass by the fact that it can exert a force on an object. If y'all want me i can get some sources.