Why do some scientists think we cant go faster thean light speed?

Question

I say we just dont have engines powerful enough yet, it was the same with the speed of sound, scientists sad it was impossible to break the sound barrier but technology came along and proved them wrong, it will be the same with light speed, just wait

Answer 1

Because all motion is relative in our 3D frame of reference. Look at two cars traveling 60 MPH side by side on the highway. There is NO relative motion between them---but there is a 60MPH "absolute speed" in the background the drivers do not notice. If one car veers off at an angle, then there is relative motion between the cars to the side. (the absolute speed stays 60 mph) the greater the veer angle, the greater the relative speed.---Of course there is a LIMIT to this relative speed. 120 mph at a 180 degree angle. Any more angle and the relative speed decreases.



The real world has a similar situation. ALL matter has a constant and set "absolute speed" in the direction of the 4th dimension--we call it TIME. So long as these 4d vector angles are parallel between particles, there is no relative movement between them in the 3D frame of reference. Relative movement between particles suggest a difference in vector angles of this inherent movement---Just as we see with the cars (but more dimensions involved) The greater the angle, the greater the RELATIVE speed----So there HAS to be an "veer ANGLE"(energy function) at which the relative speeds between objects/particles max out. In this multidimensional example it is 90degrees. Which the relative speed would be LIGHT SPEED.



Just as the absolute car speeds are not changing, the geometry causing the relative speed, The same in the 3D/4D universe situation where the absolute speed of time is constant--- its the GEOMETRY that creates the relative speed-- And that would have a limit.



Time dilation? also a relative effect. Look at the cars. As one veers off, not only does it move sideways, it also drops back a bit on the highway from the other drivers POV. Same thing in the real world, relative motion in an object makes it appear to drop BACK in time a bit, until the full 90 degrees, when it is left behind by the other object, time having apparently stopped completely from the other POV.---Any more angle and the object moves BACKWARDS in time relative to the other.--and have no Frame of reference connection.



So, since there is only ONE absolute speed, relative speed is a function of and limited by geometric relationships the maximum, being light speed.

Answer 2

Because according to the theory, the mass will increase as one approach the speed of light.

Answer 3

Because they're scientists, and you're just some bloke on yahoo answers.

Answer 4

Let me put this in plain and simple English for you, nothing with mass (which is just about everything in existence) can travel at or faster than the speed of light because if it could, it would have an infinite mass which would be impossible. The only things that can travel at or faster than the speed of light is photons which don't have mass. I hoped this help shed some light (no pun intended) on your question.

Answer 5

No scientists said the sound barrier could not be broken.



Einstein proved that no object with mass can travel faster than the speed of light.

Answer 6

The speed of light is the speed of time. That's the speed at which time passes through space. You go faster than the speed of time, then causes and effects go in reverse. The only reason why we call the speed of light is because light was the first substance we found that traversed at that speed, but since then we've found plenty of other things that also traverse at that speed. So it's not a limitation of just light, it's a limitation of the universe, for everything in the universe.



There are ways of bypassing the speed of light limitation by making space itself move past itself at a speed faster than light. That's called a warp drive. We know the theory behind it already, just don't know how to implement in engineering yet.

Answer 7

Which scientists said that supersonic flight was impossible? When and where was this reported? Did the scientists, if there were any, have any actual knowledge of aeronautics and the state of aircraft and rocket technology in say 1946?



The equations derived by Albert Einstein more than a century ago were found to be good in 1919 by Sir Arthur Eddington and many times since. The global positioning system has to take them into account and perhaps more relevant, they explain the motion of the planet Mercury around the Sun which did not quite agree with Newton's equations.



Therefore they are not "just a theory".



There provide, among other things, that the mass of an object increases in relation to the difference between it's velocity and the velocity of light. The smaller the difference, the greater the increase in mass. As the difference approaches zero, the mass of the object approaches infinity. It would therefore take an infinite amount of energy to accelerate the mass to the velocity of light.



Argument by analogy only works some of the time.

Answer 8

1) The theory of relativity does NOT forbid "faster-than-light" speed. Tachyons are possible. However the theory of relativity shows that the amount of energy to take a mass and make it go to the speed of light in a vacuum, is unbounded (what some people call "infinite").



In normal space, to take a mass and make it go faster than light would require "more-than-infinite" energy.



2) Expreiments and observations done (so far) seem to indicate that the equations of relativity are valid, even for objects that approach the speed of light.



Therefore, unless you find a way to by-pass the speed of light, it seems that the "laws of the universe" prevent an object with mass, going slower than light, to be accelerated until it becomes faster-than-light.

Equally valid (mathematically): if you were to find some object going faster-than-light, it would be impossible to make it go slower than light (it would have to release a "more-than-infinite" amount of kinetic energy, thus frying the whole univers.



Because the universe has not been fried yet, it is easy to think that it does not happen that way.

Answer 9

That was proven in an accelerometer,( a linear super collider)and sub atomic particles became pure energy passing the speed of light. Literally proving Einsteins theory of relativity has merit.

The folding of space/time and passing via worm hole has more merit, but look at the massive amount of energy needed. we have harnessed the atom, That won't cut it,but not black holes or antimatter.

Answer 10

Nothing in the universe can travel faster than light. Anything with mass can't travel faster than light. Sound waves have mass; therefor, engines and things like that can surpass it. However, the speed of light (or the speed of a photon) has no mass at all. Particles move through what scientists call "the Higgs field". As a result of this interaction, particles get mass. Different particles interact with the Higgs field with different strengths, which is why some particles are heavier than others. Photons (or light) move through the Higgs field, but don't interact with it at all. Which is why light is massless and nothing can move faster than the speed of light (186,282 MPH or about 1 billion KPH).

Answer 11

Going faster than light happens all the time. It's only a basic appearance that we can't go FTL.



Let's say you are driving a car towards another car, their electricity is flowing in your direction at c (the speed of light). Then you and the electrons are going FTL relative to each other. No biggie.



Another example:

Let's say there are 2 spaceships going .6c. No problem

Each is headed towards you from opposite directions, again no problem.

But each looking at each other: 1.2c oops! FTL!!!

But again, no problem!

Einsteins speed equations say they will APPEAR, to each other, as if going .9c towards each other.

Any physicist can run these numbers for you.



Also, look at Cherenkov Radiation. It's where electrons transition into a medium where they are going faster than c, so they give off a blue glow as they slow down to c in their new medium.

Answer 12

It's because of relativity. You can accelerate an infinite amount, but this will always get you closer to the speed of light. At the speed of light, your clock still ticks like normal but the universe will have stopped. Similarly, at near the speed of light, your clock ticks like normal but the universe is very slow. So, to reach the speed of light is going to take an infinite amount of time no matter what your acceleration is. Dont believe in this? Fine but observations made of quasars can only be explained amd compatible with the rest of physics by relativity where particles are moving at a large fraction of the speed of light or so called relativistic speeds. GPS satelites in orbit lag by 38nano seconds per day, not much but this adds up.

Answer 13

Mass increase has been measured please do proper research.



Time dilation has also been verified. When you try and dispute a long standing theory try reading more than a grade 4 reader on the subject

Answer 14

Anything is possible.

Answer 15

Before aerodynamics was really understood, several aircrafts were destroyed by pressure waves of air when they hit a certain speed. These waves could be heard within the aircraft and that's where the term "sound barrier" comes from. It was never thought that that "barrier" couldn't be passed, it was more of an acknowledgement of the effect.



But moving faster than light is a different animal altogether. To keep with your "sound barrier" analogy, let's call it the "energy barrier". We can push particles up to just short of the speed of light with tremendous amounts of energy. But to make those particles go any faster, we would need far vaster amounts of energy and since the mechanics of particle acceleration behaves just as Mr. Einstein predicted, there's no reason to doubt that we would keep adding more and more energy to achieve a goal that is forever just out of reach.



That's not to say that FTL travel itself is not possible. It's just not possible with simple mechanical acceleration.

Answer 16

Because as reach the light speed time slows down einstein prooved anything with mass cant go faster then light but there are some thingd that travel faster then light they made a beam go 300x the speed of light also the universe expanding travels faster then light but despite that we cant go faster even if we could we would die the faster you go the more force gets pressed on to you light speed would have enough force to kill you

Answer 17

Make that "most scientists" or "nearly all scientists". Once you have acknowledged that, start reading books about the matter. The explanation is very complex, and not suited to a brief answer.

Answer 18

You obviously are either intellectually impaired or haven't made it past the 8th grade: as something speeds up, its mass increases compared with its mass at rest, with the mass of the moving object determined by multiplying its rest mass by the Lorentz factor. This increase in relativistic mass makes every extra unit of energy you put into speeding up the object less effective at making it actually move faster. As the speed of the object increases and starts to reach appreciable fractions of the speed of light, the portion of energy going into making the object more massive gets bigger and bigger. This explains why nothing can travel faster than light – at or near light speed, any extra energy you put into an object does not make it move faster but just increases its mass. Mass and energy are the same thing.

Answer 19

They don't know anything that isn't learned

Answer 20

I can't remember the formula that's part of the twin paradox. But If you put in a velocity that is faster than the speed of light than the traveling twin would arrive in time before the other twin.

Answer 21

And a fart can go right through yer pants without even making a hole !

Answer 22

Scientists never said going faster than sound was impossible. Many things in nature and man made, go faster than sound even bullets from high powered rifles. Relative mass increase with speed is confirmed in particle accelerators, so it is an observed fact. You are misinformed and under-educated.

Answer 23

Simple demonstrated facts.

The more a thing with mass is accelerated the more it resists acceleration

The more a thing is accelerated the greater the time dilation.



Facts!

Answer 24

Because the laws of physics as we currently understand them say there is no way to go faster than light. There is a tendency in the scientific community, particularly among baby-boomers, to assume that our current understanding of physics will always be valid. The devotion to the standard model, quantum physics, and the laws of relativity is about as close to religious devotion as men of science and reason get. And just like the religiously devout, they either ignore or go through mental gymnastics to explain away information that conflicts with their "faith".

Answer 25

alcubierre is a paisan who disagrees with that,

the problem of infinite mass accretion as one approaches C

perhaps can be negated or minimized when basic particle research identifies every property,or force seen present everywhere in the universe

the penultimate advance in unified theory that ties strong and weak nuclear and magnetic force antiparticles,acceleration,inertia,photons electrons,electricity,how their essence is expressed differently.

solution to this? send alcubierre and 6 other eggheads along with a check for a hundred mil over to NASA labs

some of this may already be underway & we are unaware of it

Answer 26

Actually some at NASA are developing warp drive based off of Miguel Alcubierre's warp drive theory, and are confident we will have warp drive by the end of this century.



But many cannot get past the fact that you cannot travel faster than light because of time dilation, mass increase and so forth even though "warp speed" is a misconception.



Even though it can cover a hundred times the distance light can in the same amount of time, in reality the ship doesn't move an inch.



Warp drive work by -- according to Dr. Laurence Krouse, theoretical physicist and author of The Science of Star Trek -- says the ship doesn't move through space at faster than light speeds, rather space in front of the ship collapses and the space behind the ship expands.



Meaning it's space that moves, not the ship. And no laws restricts space to light speed.



But they can get past distance over time equals speed, faster than light speed -- uh uh.

Answer 27

All scientists know that you can't exceed the speed of light. Your time slows as you approach light speed or the edge of a black hole. until you can't even move as it takes years of your time to take one step inside your spaceship. At light speed time stops for you and you can't move at all. The same happens at the event horizon of a black hole, but if you were there you would be already dead

Answer 28

I'm a little surprised that no one has brought up the Alcubierre drive for faster than light travel. And then there are those notorious wormholes we hear so much about. I recommend that you do a Wikipedia search on these topics.

Cheers

Answer 29

The closer and closer you get to the speed of light you will never be able to go faster than it. This is because the closer you get time starts to slow down. So for example imagine you are in a space rocket and you are traveling 2km slower than the speed of light. Surely if you just run in the same direction you are travelling you will beat the speed of light? Well the answer is no because time will actually slow down. This means that it will slow down to the point where you can't run faster than 1.99 km so no matter how hard you try you will physically not be able to run at the speed, almost the same way you probably cant run at 100km per hour on the earth. It is a very weird concept but scientists are pretty sure nothing can beat the speed of light.

Answer 30

I think it's a little more involved than simply breaking the sound barrier..... as matter approaches the speed of light, it's mass begins to increase. The closer you get to the speed of light, the amount of mass tends toward infinity.

And, no matter how powerful your engine, no matter how much fuel you have to burn, you cannot push an infinite mass any faster to achieve the speed of light. At least: In *this* universe...

Answer 31

By saying "just a theory" confirms that you have no idea how it actually works. A theory is a hypothesis confirmed by observation. Opinion just doesn't compare.



Theory tells us that the faster a mass moves, the greater the equivalent mass becomes and more energy is required to accelerate the mass further. The equations that describe this show that the equivalent mass would become infinite at the speed of light, and no amount of energy would allow that.



It has been confirmed that this is how the universe works. You may think it works in some other way, but without putting a hypothesis together, and confirming it with observation, your opinion will hold no scientific water.

Answer 32

It is the same reason as some people think that the sun will rise tomorrow.

And others think that the only things certain in life are death and taxes.

Evidence, rather than blind belief.

Answer 33

I know where this scientist is coming from in theory but others think differently. In my opinion. When traveling in space. To start you set your speed. Now normally you turn your speed down, yet your vehicle is still going the same speed you originally set it at. ( remember this is space). Now if you set your speed at lets say Mach 3. You ship is traveling at mach 3 even if you turn your engines down to slow. Moving at mach 3. It's quite possible your ship will move faster than mach 3 & quite possible at the speed of light. I learned this from Werner Von Brown= Rocket Scientist over 51 years ago. Mike

Answer 34

You prominently display pathetic ignorance of science and stubbornness in that ignorance. Matter can never travel even near the velocity of light, not to mention faster than light. If you knew the Lorentz equations and used them, you could comprehend why this is true. You obviously do not even suspect the truth of the matter. At the velocity of light, matter's mass becomes infinite, time passage is zero and length in direction of travel is zero. At velocities greater than that of light, matter's mass, time and length have the square root of "i" in their products, and "i" is imaginary. You need to do much more study.

Answer 35

Idk

Answer 36

While you can't do this mechanically, theoretical physics says that the space-time continuum can be deflected. So, theoretically, you could remove the space in front and put it behind you. Or deflect it to an hour glass shape and step across the narrow part.

Answer 37

no amount of energy and no engine, regardless of its power, can accelerate matter to the speed of light. mass increases with velocity and it continuously requires more energy to get it closer to the speed of light. anyone claiming they can travel faster than light is a crackpot that doesn't know what he's talking about.

Answer 38

The speed of light is fixed to any observer

Light is a time traveller

Mass is fixed or variable subject to the point of observation

The passage of Time is fixed or variable subject to the point of observation

Gravity rules the Universe

Answer 39

Hi

Answer 40

Virtually all scientists (not some) believe this, but especially those who have to design hardware to cope with the reason we can't - mass goes up with speed and so high speed accelerators of protons, etc., have to be designed with bigger magnets to cope with change in speed.

Answer 41

Personally I think that beyond the reaches of the known universe there are things going faster than light. This comes from not believing that the whole universe came from something smaller than a pinhead.

In practise though a person would need a propellant that would travel faster than light, in the future just maybe it will be possible!

Answer 42

its not "some" - its all



and its not "think" - its "know"



"scientists sad it was impossible to break the sound barrier" - no they didnt



"Mass becoming infinite at the speed of light is just a theory" no it aint

(technically there is some argument about this- cos the maths says nothing specifically about "mass" increasing, and einstein was uncomfortable saying "mass" increased - he preferred to say that "momentum" increased

However most scientists separate "rest mass" from "relativistic mass"

But it dont really matter - either way - the energy required to accelerate t0 light speed becomes infinite



(and the reason nobody has brought up the alcubierre drive or wormholes "scienceguy" is

1) both are just ideas

a) the drive requires more energy than in the universe

b) we have no idea how to create a wormhole or even its possible to create one



2) in neither case do you actually go "faster than light"

space-time is warped so that you can get from A to B faster than light can, BUT in both case YOU travel through that warped space slower than light

Answer 43

You are quite ignorant of science. Speed of sound and speed of light quite different. Your reasoning is bad. Advances of technology have limits. They can never achieve impossible tasks. You have magical thinking, is illogical. Experiments support Theory of relativity. If you can actually refute it, you easily win Nobel prize of physics. You are just ignorant person not know science, not know logic. Lorentz equations show inertial mass become infinite at speed of light, certainly matter can never travel at near speed of light let alone faster. Fuel is problem too. Hydrogen fusion produce immense energy but we cannot contain it. Even if can ever contain and direct it, still infinite regress of amount spaceship must carry. You not even begin comprehend physics and mathematics involved.

Answer 44

Because science doesn't know everything, they can only measure and theories, hypothesis is based off what they already know. Not what they don't know.

Answer 45

Mass becoming infinite at the speed of light is just a theory



You means to say "supposition" or "guess", not "theory". In sciences, a theory describes an interpretation of all knowledge available.



Anyway, when you build particle accelerators for research or for medicine for example (PET scanners), you have to design the magnets that guide the particles taking into account their speeds and their masses. If you had assumed that the mass did not depend on the speed of the particle, they simply wouldn't work (the particles would punch through the machine instead of staying in the guided orbit). Therefore, we know it isn't "just a guess".

Answer 46

The math did not show we could not move faster than sound. The math DOES show we cannot move at light speed; it would require infinite energy to move a mass (matter) to light speed. Photons have no mass, so they can move at that speed. As odd as it sounds, it's true.

Answer 47

It's called reality versus fiction.



Just because scientists were wrong once does not mean they will be wrong again.



The supply of geniuses has dried up. SO has the supply of technological innovation. There is no such thing as technology to go faster than light, and even if there was, people have become so dumbed down nowadays that there is noone left who could invent them.



Cheers!

Answer 48

"scientists sad it was impossible to break the sound barrier "



No they didn't - journalists hyped the story to sell papers while scientists went ahead and did it!



"Mass becoming infinite at the speed of light is just a theory"



A very well proven one, though you obviously have no clue what a theory is! Here's a hint - it's not a guess!

Answer 49

The THINK we can, but NO ONE hasd ever been able to do so.



Most REAL scientist think that traveling at the speed of light is completely impossible.



But the possibility of Warp Speed is still there. In Warp Speed, you DO NOT travel faster than light, but you "warp space" so the the DISTANCE to your destination is shorter. Then you travel the shorter distance at SUBLIGHT SPEEDS, and then finally unfold the warp.



This takes a HUGE amount of gravity, and as yet humans can;t control gravity.



So warp speed, a REAL possibility, is still several hundred, even a thousands, years away.

Answer 50

Some Scientists??? ALL Scientists KNOW that we can not exceed the speed of Light.

Answer 51

Even Miguel Alcubierre sees problems with the Alcubierre Drive.

Answer 52

Solar winds and Solar kites are the answer

Answer 53

Because we are made of normal matter, and it is well proven that the mass of such matter increases with velocity in a way that implies divide by zero singularities at light speed.

Were you not made of normal matter, tachyonic material - if it exists - can travel (indeed, has to travel) faster than lightspeed, and has similar problems slowing down to lightspeed.

Answer 54

When you achieve it, let us know.