Is it possible to travel faster than light?

Question

I know at this point the answer is no, but do you think with new technology, such a thing like warp drive is possible??

Answer 1

It is not possible for any particle that has mass to travel faster than the speed of light. The reason has a lot to do with relativity. Because the faster you go, the slower time passes for you. So if you are at 80% of the speed of light, and launch a projectile in front of you at light speed, because of your slow passage through time, it will still appear to you to travel at light. Everything is relative, and because of that, certain constants like the speed of light never change.



Also, a particle with mass would achieve infinite weight at light speed. Since you can't obviously exceed infinite weight, you can't exceed light.



The ideas behind things like "warp speed" don't propose actually traveling faster than light. What they propose is taking shortcuts through space, kind of like skipping a stone across the surface of the water. Even "warp speed" is subject to the laws of relativity.

Answer 2

Faster Than Light Travel Possible

Answer 3

If your asking whether or not it is possible for humans to travel faster than light, than the answer is yes. Anything is possible.

But here are some guidelinges: as you accelerate, a substance gains mass. By the time you accelerated to the speed of light, you would weight an almost unmentionable weight(i don't feel like figuring it out). The ammount of energy required to take you to such speeds would be massive. Almost impossible; but it COULD happen, just probably never will.

If you're referring to anything accelerating that fast, than the answer is also yes. Many tests have concluded that some super-heated substances (plasma) can challenge the speed of light. No tests have actually been performed on earth, because no substance or force that we know of (other than earth's magnetic field, which can't be just brought into a lab) is strong enough to hold such fast-moving atoms.

Another example would be electromagnetic waves. Some waves, such as radiation waves, (not the radiation you hear about in nuclear missiles, a different thing) can travel faster than light, because they are farther up in the spectrum, above visible light.

To answer your question within the bounds of reality: NO. A warp drive will never likely be invented. It is indeed possible, however.

Answer 4

This is a complicated speculative question, but there are some interesting things to consider:



1. Special relativity dictates that one cannot travel AT the speed of light. However, it does not really say much of value at tachyonic speeds (beyond the speed of light) because the computed quantities are imaginary then. Approaching the speed of light from below would require an infinite amount of energy.



2. By the General Theory of Relativity, there are regions of space where the laws of physics break down (inside a black hole for example).



3. There are even more speculative constructs called wormholes which might connect distant regions of space.



4. There have been some demonstrations of quantum teleportation in the laboratory for very small quantities of material. It is not clear if this will lead to any practical technologies ever, but if it does, it might take centuries.



5. Probably the special and general theories of relativity are incomplete at best, and possibly even inaccurate. For example, we seem to be observing some sort of evidence of antigravitational forces on cosmic scales, which contradict our standard relativistic gravity theory. No one knows what any of this means yet, if anything.



6. Quantum mechanics is very complicated, and we probably only are scratching the surface of quantum mechanics. Attempts to connect quantum mechanics with gravity have so far been fairly disappointing. There is clearly a lot more physics that we do not understand at all, and when more is uncovered, it is not clear what sorts of technology will be possible.

Answer 5

A lot of people are being so 3-d here. It is quite possible for an object or person to travel FTL...2 ways I can think of off hand.



One:



One has an understanding of the knowledge required to do so with one's will power. One moves into the dimention when one would go to in out of body experiences or death or high doses of DMT...In this dimention there is no such thing as time, because all is energy. If one moves from one place in 3-d space from this next dimention to another place, no time would have passed and one would be instantly relocated. How do you think energy beings and spirits do such a thing?



Two:



One is able to build a device that basically harnesses the power of electro-magnetics and is able to create a field, similar to the one that was created when the military partook of the Philidelphia experiment.



This field would take you OUT of phase with this reality, and you would be able to travel at least as fast as light, because as far as the 3d reality is concerned, you are not matter at that point, you have instead become embedded matter into a field that is pure energy, so the laws of conservation of matter would not apply.



:)



Be well.

Answer 6

Depends. Do you mean the speed of light in a vacuum? No. They do have a new substance, however, that makes it possible. It's a goopy substance that makes it possible so a car going legal speed limit in Michigan can get 30 MPH advantage over it. Not getting you any closer to warp drive. Wanna hit the speed of light in a vacuum? Can't do it. Even if you managed to do it you'd be nothing more than a plasma (huh? Gas. Just that the nucleus of the gas is moving so fast the electrons go flying, like a dog shaking water off.) You'd be dead, and there'd be no point in getting there, unless you're going to a funeral, in which case the graveyard'd just need an 18 inch hole, a gravestone, as much of your body as possible (they'd probably get nothing unless your body cooled in an instant), and one of those little plastic Pokeballs that Burger King had to pull because of suffocation hazards.



In other words, only with the goo.



Just a side note, if you're trying with thought, you're not getting there save for in your mind. Not useful, because imagination is endless, and you could wind up making a planet of scaly tentacled dragons where a Quasar is.

Answer 7

I don't know all the complexities of Einstein’s equations, but there are some things that I do know. First, I know that such particles as photons and the proposed gravitons can travel at light speed because they have no mass. So in theory, there is nothing to stop a massless object from going faster than light. There is just one thing that would be necessary for this to happen. Einstein showed was that speed through space + speed through time = the speed of light. This means if you were to travel faster than light, you would have to be traveling backward in time.

Answer 8

We are only comparing with things we know about. Other wise we'd say is it possible to travel faster than something else. Of course there is a way to travel faster than light. Science always seems to put limits on things like this, but eventually someone comes along and surpasses those limits. Usually in a simple way that almost no one expects. Look at Penicilin (yes I think I did misspell it). Because of this miracle endless amounts of people will live because of something that we complain of ruining our loaf of bread. Scientists be creative! For there lies the answer. After all, maybe the answer to traveling passed the speed of light is floating around you and you didn't even know it.

Answer 9

yes and no is the simple answer.....



the more complex one is this...... all that can be determined from the expression "faster" is how much distance is covered in a certain amount of time. distance is a key factor is ascertaining speed. To make a long story short, if you could create a gravity bubble and get inside of it you would be warping space around the field (ie...warp drives) in this case as I understand it, the warping of the"surrounding space time" could actually occur "faster" than it would take light to travel an arbitrary distance. The trick with this is that within the gravity bubble, light would continue to hold the upper speed limit of 186,000 miles per second and we could not surpasss that. The reason is because as objects accelerate they acquire additional mass. Because of this, it requires more and more energy to accelerate and the cycle perpetuates itself right up to the speed of light where you would need "AN INFINITE" energy source to keep accelerating. The reason that photons (aka LIGHT) are able to travel as fast as they do is because they have no "resting mass" that is to say they have no mass unless they are moving, and since it is of their nature to move at a constant prescribed speed (the speed of light), photons do not accelerate.

Answer 10

I don't know about the above people, but even with all due respect, SOME of their answers were quite absurd.



See, the thing is, NO MATTER OR MATERIAL PARTICLE can travel faster than light, but THE SPEED OF LIGHT IN ITSELF IS NOT ULTIMATE.That is because light can travel faster than its own speed, as has been already done by a team of scientists in EPFL.

But the maximum a material particle has been accelerated to is something like 99.9999....% the speed of light.But never ever 100%.

The reason is quite simple, though intriguing:

As soon as ANY MATERIAL PARTICLE approaches the speed of light, theoretically, they become massless.And this proposition doesn't allow matter to exceed the speed of light.

Answer 11

The einsteinian theorists mostly tell you no. The quantum theorists are carefully couching their answers to your question. I will slightly dumb down an answer and provide you with the reality that yes, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. If you measure, say, the way a certain quantum state is, the moment you measure a part of that, it and its correspondent part, anywhere in the universe will change, the moment you measure it. Now nothing has touched the correspondent part, and yet it changes. The change was instantaneous. So something, which was nothing, has travelled faster than the speed of light. Now if you could make yourself, temporarily, into nothing, then you could, theoretically, travel as fast as nothing, or faster than the speed of light. Wouldn't that be something?

Answer 12

Depends on how you want to travel. Try this sometime. Go outside on a clear night, and pick out some star to look at. Really look at it for a moment. Then flick your gaze down to the ground.

Science tells us that it takes billions of years for the light of certain distant stars to reach us, but can you really say that nothing traveled between the star and the earth in the moment you shifted your gaze? Your attention did. So the question becomes something like this: Did my awareness move faster than light, or was it merely my awareness moving?

Answer 13

Basicly no and here is why: Whenever something moves it gains mass as a function of the speed travelling e.g the faster you go the more mass you have. Now travelling at slow speeds it is not a problem but as you reach the speed of light you have gained an almost infinite amount of mass and thus require an almost infinite amount of energy to accelerate any faster. At almost exactly the speed of light you may be only 1*10^-100000 km/ph away from the speed of light but you now contain all the matter in the universe as you have infinite mass and thus require infinite energy to accelerate any further.

Answer 14

I have heard of laboratory experiments where particles have been accelerated beyond the speed of light. My speculation is that such particles have entered another dimension. String theory predicts there are other dimensions, but I suspect they are very tiny, quantum dimensions. Humans appear to be locked into our large three-dimensional world and warp drive is only science fiction. Additionally, if any human ever approached the speed of light, he/she would be torn apart.

Answer 15

According to Einsteins equation the answer is "No". However, there may be exceptions to our current understanding of physics that could make it possible. For example, according to modern day physics, 90% of mass in the universe is made up of "dark matter". Frankly, I think that is a lame explanation for observations that aren't supported by our current understanding of physics.

Can some THING travel faster than the speed of light? Probably. Can WE? Probably not.

Answer 16

For all paths that light can follow, it is impossible. The nature of light is such that this would seem to be a practical upper bound. The key would be to consider a path that cannot be transversed by light. I'll answer that question yesterday.

Answer 17

Yes One Person Opinion Appealed Me.....Even Thoughts Can Cover The Vastness Of Times Within No Time.

U C A Person 20 years ago n then u go 20 years back n remember where do u met that person....n this happens in no time.

Also ISLAM Says that A Sacred Angel "JIBRAEL-RA" traveled through seven skies within the instance of eye blink.

Answer 18

It is technically possible to move faster than light. But not at lights full speed. Scientists have been able to actually slow down the speed of light to a mere 38 miles an hour! Roughly the speed of city traffic. But as far traveling faster than light at full speed at the moment, no. But slowed down, yes.

Answer 19

Yes, it is possible (at least for microwaves and for pulses of light) to travel faster than the common accepted value of the speed of light, that is c (roughly 300'000 km/second).



"In one experiment, led by Anedio Ranfagni, of the Italian National Research Council, microwaves were sent through a narrow, ring-shaped opening onto a large mirror, sent the waves back to and behind the source. The arrival times of these pulses showed that they travelled at speeds 5% above c.



The work is described in a recent issue of the Physical Review Letters. "



"In the other experiment, a pulse of light that enters a transparent chamber filled with caesium gas reaches speeds 300 times the normal speed of light."

Answer 20

no, and here is mathamatically why:

lightspeed is the ultimate speed limit of the universe. nothing can go faster then the speed of light because in the formula for time dialation(time slows down for an object moving close to the speed of light) t'=t/sqrt(1-v^2/c^2) where t' is the time passing for an outside observer, t is the time that passes for the object going at the high velocity, v is velocity, speed is the speed of light and ^2 is squared. (note: this formula is definately correct, it's part of einstein's theory of relativity and I've had to derive it myself for class) so if v was bigger than c, you would have a number greater than one and therefore a negative number under a square root, which is impossible.

Answer 21

Well i dont think they invented a warp drive yet.But traveling faster then light make be possible in the next 50 years.At least i hope so.

Answer 22

Even with new technology, it is not possible to travel faster than light. This goes against all theories in existence.

Answer 23

I once read a brief, in which engineers for a particular US defense contractor claimed the electrons in a particular device traveled at 1.15c.



Since V=s/t, and t is a function of gravity, which itself is a function of mass, Vc can't be regarded as a constant (as 300Mm/sec, etc.), but only as a relative value.



Do the basic algebra, people: the theoretical speed limit is not c, but the square of c:



E = mcc; E/m = cc; E/cc = m

Answer 24

Captain Kirk does it all the time. We just need to go back in time to the 60's or 90's and get on the Star Trek set. From there it is a sinch. So, the real question is "Is time travel possible?"

Answer 25

It is possible to travel faster than light - according to the new discoveries on the field of quantum physics. There is one thing faster than light, and that is thought. If people can use their thought in order to transfer from one place to another, then they can travel faster than light.

Answer 26

It might be possible in the future. But right now, we just don't have the technology to do it, but who knows, maybe one day you will be able to go across the country in a matter of seconds!!!

Answer 27

Yes it is possible, but not with the help of Technology. It is possible by super concentration exercises. its not a joke but hidden fact of a human life

Answer 28

actually it is possible. there is a technology lab that has lab tests where the experiments have to travel faster than light.

Answer 29

Swedish scientists made light travel faster. basically increasing the speed of light, so technically, it has been done. but then again, light is energy, and i believe it is very possible.

Answer 30

it is possible but science and technology must increase to achieve that level. you can travel faster in approximately 75 years

Answer 31

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Answer 32

well, from what i know, people think who light is the ultimate speed.i dont see why, cuz people didnt think u could go past the speed of sound, be look now.if u could go that speed, everything behind u would be black nothingness, cuz u r going faster then the photons of light.

Answer 33

Anything is possible.



Currently, there are theoretical sub-atomic particles some say can travel faster.

Answer 34

if you are on a train going the speed of light and you walk forward then you are going faster than light.

Answer 35

I don't think so. Even if you could, I wouldn't try it. I heard traviling that fast could deform your face and body. It also could give you permenant brain damage. And maybe going that fast will take you further in time - the future. Or, could take you back in time - dino food.

Answer 36

it is impossible to travel faster than light no matter what new theories there are

Answer 37

Nope i don't think so unless you can travel faster than 300,000,000 metres per second!!!!

Answer 38

no because light travels 1115 feet per sec and 2435 sec per sec.

Answer 39

anything is possible...



people used to think the earth was flat



that heavier that air flight was impossible...



just give it time...

Answer 40

It could be possible to do so but it will be really hard

Answer 41

yes, but you have to discover a new thing like super dooper jet boosters .

Answer 42

yes its possible. carry a torch light on your back.

Answer 43

Not currently.

Answer 44

Short answer no

Answer 45

If you were on the SS Enterprise then yes.!!

Answer 46

NO



Consult any physicist. It is the standard.

Answer 47

may be in near future

Answer 48

only with a star gate.

Answer 49

i dont think so.. cuz when theres a thunderstorm,,, lightning comes 1st, then thunder.. so ya...

Answer 50

I guess NO, if you meant trveling.

Answer 51

yes it is right to travel faster than light because ................................

Answer 52

Course it is

Answer 53

yes, in your mind

Answer 54

mabey. i don't like all of this science crap, so i don't really know.

Answer 55

300.000 miles/s no it's not possible

Answer 56

Only if God allows it.

Answer 57

No

Answer 58

NO...well, mabey..but i say NO!

Answer 59

no

Answer 60

no

Answer 61

no

Answer 62

ya : ) it is

Answer 63

when you find out how, let me know please!!!