Question:
Is travel at the speed of light possible?
anonymous
1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Is travel at the speed of light possible?
Fourteen answers:
?
2016-05-21 02:14:45 UTC
Just a couple of comments : Whenever infinities appear in physics , it often indicates that the equation, theory or whatever is actually being used outside of its applicable range and so the result is suspect. However , according to the equations , mass does indeed increase towards infinity as its speed increases towards the speed of light. But I like your thought that if you are using a fuel mass to accelerate the whole mass of your rocket ship towards the speed of light , then the (decreasing) mass of the fuel also increases towards infinity --could you not have a fuel mass therefore to achieve light speed?. Concerning your spaceship travelling at 0.6c towards a star which is moving at 0.6c towards the spaceship -- the implication being that these speeds are from the point of view of another (stationary) observer. In his time frame then, both ships move at 0.6c towards one another , and hence he will see the separating space between ship and star reduce at a rate given by (distance apart) /1.2c. However, observers on the spaceship and on the star would see (equal) relativistic speeds in their own time frames of
Ankit Kumar
2007-08-26 00:44:34 UTC
A good question. Well but you cannot travel at the speed of light. It is not possible according o the theory. Any object which attains the seped of light will have its weight infinity. And this can't be possible. So the spped of light is impossible to be reached by any object.
deedee
2007-08-23 00:44:17 UTC
I think it is. but how would our body react?

and what will be cons? you know the airplane that travels faster than sound? well they don't use it because of the sound airplane made when it hit the sound barrier......

will it be the same? I can only assume...

edit: I think we will use teleportation not speed of light travels
farwallronny
2007-08-23 21:41:42 UTC
Remember that the momentum of a moving object is the embodiment of the force that made the object move in the first place.



Say I apply x amount of energy to a stationary object and it accelerates to a velocity of v.

Now if I apply the same amount of energy again it should double the velocity, right?

Wrong. It doesn't double the velocity, it doubles the momentum.



Now, there are two ways to increase the momentum of an object:

1) Increase it's velocity, or,

2) Increase it's mass.

(or some of both).



At low relativistic velocities, a force on an object increases the object's momentum by piling on more speed (and a small amount of additional mass).

But at high relativistic velocities, the same amount of energy increase the object's momentum by piling an more mass (and a small amount of additional speed).



The mass curve approaches infinity as the velocity approaches the speed of light.

The result is that the object has infinite momentum when it reaches the speed of light.



Remember that the momentum of a moving object is the embodiment of the force that made the object move in the first place.

For our object to reach the speed of light it will have to have infinite momentum, and we will need to apply infinite energy to it to get it there (regardless of it's rest-mass).



Unfortunately, there is only a limited amount of energy in the universe.
jcsuperstar714
2007-08-23 06:34:34 UTC
No. It is possible to travel at the speed of light iff you are a massless particle (eg a photon). A massive particle or assembly of such particles cannot be accelerated that fast. It can approach it, depending on how much energy you can input, but never reach it.
anonymous
2007-08-23 00:56:15 UTC
The faster you go the heavier (more massive) you get.

The heavier you get the more energy it takes to push you even faster. As some point it takes an infinite amount of energy to push you faster -- you reach that point just short of light speed. That's what E=mc^2 says in plain English.



Another problem is that if you could go light speed time would stop for you.
Allen
2007-08-23 00:42:25 UTC
Well here is a simple answer to that question.



Only subatomic particles such as photons with no mass can travel at the speed of light! Anything that has mass cannot travel at the speed of light. It just slows it down.
Dave
2007-08-23 00:43:56 UTC
there are already particle acceleration machines in the world which are able to blast particles at pretty much the speed of light. Of course, this is very different to making a machine do it. I think a lot of it would be the more practacle elements - you could never make a machine light enough, yet strong enough, and allow it to hold enough fuel - ie it needs a lot of fuel to get to those speeds, and due to the intense physical strain the machine would need to ber very strong, but it would want to be slim & light. I'm sure when new materials are invented, and new propulsion systems are created, they'll start working on it - not for a number of years though
Chug-a-Lug
2007-08-23 00:42:29 UTC
Theoretically it's possible to accelerate some mass up to 99.9999999...% the speed of light. Relativity however shows us that to attain the speed of light would require infinite energy, i.e., all the energy in the universe. Remember that as the mass gets closer and closer to the speed of light its mass increases accordingly, thus requiring more energy to move that greater mass any faster. At almost the speed of light the mass of the object is approaching infinity.
Thoughtfull
2007-08-23 01:17:30 UTC
If the outer shell of the vessel were spinning at a super accelerated rate of speed then I believe it would cut through space like a screw at faster than light speeds.



It would also be interesting to test, and measure light speed outside of our solar systems Oort cloud, and I believe the closest distance to exit the Oort cloud would be directly north, or south of the suns axis.



Also people need to start thinking outside the box, and stop referring to Einsteins theory's as absolutes, Einstein can think no more, but all of us can, and he did his part here when he was alive, and now it is time for us to do ours.



When examining any situations, we must look at the physics of all things involved, and the interesting thing about physics is there are so many things to consider that the ramifications of possibility's become endless when we take into consideration motion, and invisible forces, such as magnetism, sound, wave frequency's, and element compositions some of which still remain undiscovered to this day.



look for the technique, if people always look to Einsteins equation's as absolutes then they should not even study physics because they have already resigned to defeat by closing there minds to new possibility's.



Do people truly believe that Einsteins work was completed, and there are no more discovery's, I think not, If Einstein were still alive today, and with consideration given to new and updated information about our known universe I believe he would still be looking for, and finding new solutions to problems, and he would still continue to astound the people with his brilliance.



If we all do not look for the solutions to problems ourselves, and people continue to quote Einstein, then those people have closed there minds to all possibility's.



Close minded people will not find solutions.



I am going to answer your questions one at a time here in order



First of all to attain faster than light travel would not take a constant rate of acceleration indefinitely, as we would only need enough energy to take us from our point of departure to our point of destination, we should currently have the ability through hot fusion, and with regard to what we have learned through Einsteins equations that a common paper clip harbors enough energy equivalent to release the same equivalent energy in joules which is released from a one megaton nuclear bomb, then the energy needed would be provided through common mass, which would be contained with in the vessel.



Secondly there is more than one frame of thought to look at the conundrum in which at approaching near light speed the vessel in question turns to pure energy, in reverse we could examine this problem as thinking of space becoming a solid at faster accelerations, and then we would only have to treat space as a solid when approaching light speed.



Thirdly plotting an obstacle free heading would not even be necessary once we treat space as a solid, with regard to the linear acceleration of the craft in which the outer hull is in hyper quantum rotation, and in a similar way in which a tornado can drive common straw through metal without damaging the straw, your vessel would travel through matter with in our universe without damage as if solid masses were not even present.



Therefor with regard given to the linear acceleration of the vessel, and hyper quantum rotation of the outer hull structure, in which the speed of spin could be calculated based upon the density of the vessels mass then I believe that the integrity of the kinetic energy of the vessel would be conserved, and it is my belief that nothing would stop us from attaining faster than light travel through deep space.
linglong
2007-08-23 00:48:31 UTC
well let's just think about it......at the speed of light we just can't travel in our atmosphere the g forces would destroy the ship and it's cargo.....we have to go into space......at light speed Einstein proved that the kinetic energy is not 1/2mv^2 it is e=mc^2 without putting the 1/2...........if a gram of material would approach light speed, just think at the formula.......e=1gram x 300000000m/sec^2=0.001kg x 9000000000000=9000000000 joules..........so it would pass through the Sun and still have enough kinetic energy to pass through all the rest of the planet of our solar system with the condition it doesn't melt....9 billion joules....
anonymous
2007-08-23 02:11:20 UTC
no its not possible, because any things can travel light speed then becomes they are changed to energy. according to Einstine's theory

E=MC^2
whatagowk
2007-08-23 02:19:59 UTC
nope impossible. u can get extremely close though, but ull just never each it. refer to E=mc^2 :)
anonymous
2007-08-23 00:44:11 UTC
obviously its not possible, cause solid object need to be evaporated to travel that speed.


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